Netanyahu has angered many Democrat supporters of Israel, and has damaged the bipartisan support for the Jewish State. Understandably, many observers view Netanyahu’s Congressional address as a ploy to win him votes in Israel’s forthcoming general election. It is naive to believe that one speech alone will change anything. Even if the prime minister is motivated solely by his concerns over Iran, he has succeeded only in diverting attention from Tehran, instead shining a spotlight on the crisis in relations between Israel and the Obama administration. It is tragic that genuine concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions are being dismissed because of Netanyahu’s self-defeating policies and actions.
Netanyahu speaking to the UN in 2012 (Photo: Getty)
If the reports regarding the contours of an agreement with Iran are true, we could be about to enter a dangerous new world of nuclear proliferation. As the former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, recently pointed out in a congressional hearing, the nuclear negotiations with Iran were originally underpinned by six UN resolutions, and initiated with the aim of preventing the development of an Iranian nuclear capability.
Kissinger points out that the talks have effectively become a negotiation over the scope of this capability.
In short, the Obama administration is “moving away from preventing proliferation to managing it.” The present reports on the deal with Iran are worrying because Tehran refuses to address IAEA concerns on its weaponisation work. Also, even if an agreement includes very tough verification measures to monitor potential Iranian violations, it may take many months to agree on what constitutes a violation. Iran could break out in that time to obtain a nuclear weapon. Look how long it has taken the United States to address Russia’s violations of the INF Treaty.
The p5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) are of course right to try and reach an agreement with Iran, but not at any price. All this comes at a time when the UN has reported that North Korea is evading sanctions, and continuing its attempts to transfer material relating to its nuclear and missile programmes. And at a time when there is a heightened risk of an unintended escalation between Nato and Russia which could lead to nuclear confrontation, the last thing the world needs is a nuclear-armed Iran. This is liable to set off a dangerous arms race in the Middle East.
Reports have already indicated that Egypt is working to acquire a nuclear reactor with Russia’s help. Saudi Arabia and Jordan are also closely watching from the sidelines. It is precisely for this reason that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar have already purchased missile defence systems from the United States to deal with this potential danger. And the Middle East is not alone. There has been little coverage on the Nato deployment of a missile defence system in Romania in 2015. This missile defence system is intended to protect Europe – not from a Russian threat but from Iranian nuclear-armed missiles.
So Netanyahu is right to voice his alarm, but he is going about it completely the wrong way. Surely other world leaders who share his concerns can step forward and convince the United States and its negotiating partners that even if Tehran’s nuclear programme is not dismantled, they should not agree to a deal that will offer Iran a breakout capability on a plate.
Dr. Azriel Bermant is a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University. He is writing a book on Margaret Thatcher and the Middle East.
Read Seyed Hossein Mousavian: What happens if the talks fail?
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1DCtqov
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