Kerry Welcoming, but Wary of Netanyahu - New York Times

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Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments were the latest in the back-and-forth over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech before Congress. Credit Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry tried to lower the temperature on Sunday in the three-way fight among congressional Republicans, the Obama administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, saying that Mr. Netanyahu was welcome to speak in the United States.

But Mr. Kerry also said that it was “odd, if not unique” that the administration learned of the Israeli leader’s coming address to Congress not through the usual diplomatic channels, but from Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, and that the “administration was not included in the process.”

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  Netanyahu’s Speech Opens Political Divisions in Israel, TooMARCH 1, 2015

  
  

Mr. Kerry’s comments, on the ABC program “This Week,” were the latest salvo in the escalating back-and-forth over Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to accept the invitation from congressional Republicans to speak on Tuesday about his concerns over international negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program. Mr. Netanyahu has maintained that he is making the address because he is concerned about Israel’s security.

Mr. Netanyahu is expected to criticize an emerging agreement that many in Israel fear will leave Iran with a substantial infrastructure with which to pursue the development of nuclear weapons when the accord expires. But many Obama administration officials believe the negotiations could lead to one of the president’s most significant foreign policy achievements.

Critics of the prime minister’s decision to accept an invitation from President Obama’s Republican opponents describe it as a sign of disregard from an ally that so heavily relies on American financial aid and diplomatic backing.

Mr. Kerry made that exact point during his television interview, which was broadcast as he left for talks in Switzerland with Iran’s foreign minister.

“I was reviewing the record the other day,” Mr. Kerry said. “We have intervened on Israel’s behalf, in the last two years, more than several hundred — a couple of hundred times in over 75 different fora in order to protect Israel.” He added that “the administration is not seeking to politicize this.”

Mr. Obama has maintained that a nuclear deal with Iran can help assure Israeli security, particularly given that neither the United States nor its European allies in the Iran negotiations are interested in military action to halt Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Mr. Kerry said that Israel is safer because of the short-term agreement that world powers reached with Iran in 2013, and that the United States is trying now to get an improved deal.

One potential compromise under consideration would see Iran’s nuclear enrichment curtailed for at least 10 years and then gradually eased during the later years of the accord in return for an eventual lifting of economic sanctions.

“Our hope is that diplomacy can work,” Mr. Kerry said. “And I believe, given our success on the interim agreement, we deserve the benefit of the doubt to find out whether or not we can get a similarly good agreement with respect to the future.”

Mr. Kerry spoke by phone with Mr. Netanyahu on Saturday, the State Department said. A senior State Department official, who declined to be identified in describing a private telephone conversation, said the discussion focused on the current state of the Iran talks, Mr. Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and Mr. Kerry’s concern about the financial plight of the Palestinian Authority.

Mr. Kerry often speaks with Mr. Netanyahu, even when they have differed publicly, but the growing tensions in American-Israeli relations because of the Iran talks have made the conversations more significant.

The United States and its negotiating partners are striving to meet an end-of-March deadline for negotiating the outline of an accord. Israel has been concerned that the accord will do too little to reduce Iran’s potential to pursue the development of nuclear weapons once the deal expires.

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