Monday, March 2, 2015

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Obama Aide Tells Aipac That US Won't Let Iran Get Nuclear Arms - New York Times




Samantha Power, United States ambassador to the United Nations, addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee gathering in Washington on Monday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — A top adviser to President Obama on Monday reassured a large audience of Israel supporters that the United States would never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, but warned that Israeli-American ties should not be politicized.


Samantha Power, the president’s ambassador to the United Nations, appeared at a fraught moment in the relationship between the two allies, rebutting criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed the same conference later in the morning with a warning about American-led talks with Iran.


“The United States of America will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon,” Ms. Power told the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Period.”



Whatever the tensions between the leaders of the two countries, Ms. Power reminded the audience that the United States under Mr. Obama has invested more than $20 billion in Israel’s security and asserted that no one should doubt his commitment amid negotiations with Tehran.




Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and two top White House advisers are speaking to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee gathering in Washington on Monday. Doug Mills/The New York Times

“Talks, no talks, agreement, no agreement, the United States will take whatever steps are necessary to protect our national security and that of our closest allies,” she told thousands of Israel supporters gathered in the cavernous hall of the Washington Convention Center.


“We believe diplomacy is the preferred route to secure our shared aim. But if diplomacy fails, we know the stakes of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as everyone here. We will not let it happen. There will never be a sunset on America’s commitment to Israel’s security. Never.”


But in a sharp if veiled jab at Mr. Netanyahu, Ms. Power said, “This partnership should never be politicized and it cannot and will not be tarnished or broken.” Debating the merits of a deal with Iran is legitimate, she added. “Politicizing that process is not,” she said. “The stakes are too high for that.”


Ms. Power was dispatched to deal with the fallout from the dispute over Mr. Netanyahu’s visit to Washington shortly before Israeli elections to address a joint meeting of Congress. Mr. Obama will address the issue directly later in the day in an interview with Reuters, and his national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, will address the conference on Monday evening.


The tension of the moment was reflected a few minutes before Ms. Power’s appearance when the audience was reminded to “treat all our speakers as guests in our home.” Michael Kassen, the chairman of the Aipac board, made a point of praising Ms. Power in his introduction by noting her efforts to counter United Nations resolutions opposed by Israel.


The audience responded to her politely and rose in applause to some of her statements, including when she said the Israeli-American relationship transcended politics. “That is a very important statement you all have made,” Ms. Power said when she saw the audience rise.


The series of public comments will be as close as the American president and the Israeli prime minister come to a real-time debate over how to address the nuclear threat from Iran, and they are likely to highlight the deep rift between Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu on the issue.


Those divisions have become more personal in recent weeks after Mr. Netanyahu worked with Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, to arrange for the prime minister’s speech at a joint session of Congress, without first informing the White House.


Mr. Obama quickly said he would not meet with Mr. Netanyahu, to avoid the appearance of influencing Israeli elections in two weeks. Ms. Rice said last week that the prime minister’s visit had been “destructive” to the American-Israel relationship because it injected politics.


Mr. Boehner said on Sunday that he had never seen demand for tickets as high as they are for Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance, and he criticized Mr. Obama’s team for its reaction to the planned speech.


“What I do wonder is why the White House feels threatened because the Congress wants to support Israel and wants to hear what a trusted ally has to say,” Mr. Boehner said on the CBS program “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “It has been, frankly, remarkable to me the extent to which, over the last five or six weeks, the White House has attacked the prime minister, attacked me for wanting to hear from one of our closest allies.”


Secretary of State John Kerry, who was in Switzerland on Monday negotiating with Iran, sought to portray the United States as a strong supporter of Israel’s security.


The United States “will oppose any effort by any group or participant in the U.N. system to arbitrarily and regularly delegitimize or isolate Israel,” Mr. Kerry said during an appearance before the Human Rights Council in Geneva.


But the focus Monday and Tuesday, in an unusual series of virtually dueling speeches and the interview, is more likely to be on differences between the two nations.


“What you’re going to see is a very, very deep disagreement over policy by an American government led by President Obama and an Israeli government for now led by Netanyahu,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of the Democratic-aligned and pro-Israel group J Street. He said that divide was “only going to get worse if an agreement is struck with Iran, and then you’re in a very serious clash between the two countries.”



Michael Gordon contributed reporting from Geneva.










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