WarSclerotic

In an interview with Channel 10 that aired in full on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought to assuage Israeli concerns about the emerging nuclear deal between world powers and Iran.

Kerry said the deal would not affect American options to counter any possible effort by Iran to build nuclear weapons.

“I say to every Israeli that today we have the ability to stop [the Iranians] if they decided to move quickly to a bomb and I absolutely guarantee that in the future we will have the ability to know what they are doing so that we can still stop them if they decided to move to a bomb,” Kerry said.

Kerry also said he did not think Israel would strike Iran’s nuclear facilities without consulting with the U.S. first.

“I do not believe frankly that … we’d wake up one morning and find that,” Kerry said, referring to a possible Israeli military operation against Iran’s nuclear program. “I believe our relationship with Israel is such that the prime minister would talk to us at considerable length, because we would be deeply involved in what would happen [in the] aftermath, and there are huge implications to that.”

Meanwhile, Channel 2 reported on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently denied a request by Kerry to visit Israel, telling the secretary of state to hold off until after the new Israeli government is formed.

According to the report, Netanyahu indicated to Kerry that a visit would not be appropriate before the new government is sworn in. Netanyahu has until Wednesday to finish building his new coalition.

The Prime Minister’s Office did not comment on the report.

On Sunday, Netanyahu met in Jerusalem with visiting U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The prime minister warned of the dangers of the emerging nuclear deal with Iran.

“It endangers Israel, it endangers the region, it endangers the world, the entire world in my opinion,” Netanyahu said. “So I think it’s very important to insist on a better deal.”