Obama telling Israel to back down on Iran. US President Obama (left) and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (right). Israel talking to world about Iran. Illustrative. (Photo Courtesy of Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Amidst all the reports and claims by the sides that Iran and the major world powers have narrowed their gaps in their nuclear talks, US President Barack Obama made it clear that the time has come for Iran to choose whether or not they actually want to make a deal. “The issues now are sufficiently narrowed and sufficiently clarified where we’re at point where they need to make a decision,” said Obama in a press conference posted to the White House website. “…We now know enough that the issues are no longer technical. The issues now are, does Iran have the political will and the desire to get a deal done?”
Iran leadership weren’t the only ones getting questioned by Obama, however. He also leveled a not-so-subtle hint that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shouldn’t be talking to Congress about Iran right now. An American newspaper, The New York Sun, took major issue with that—linking the move to the silencing of the Czechs in the talks with Nazi Germany right before World War II.
Obama said Netanyahu’s planned Iran speech to Congress would at least be perceived as being “partisan politics,” as the Israeli elections are in March. “Whether that’s accurate or not, that is a potential perception, and that’s something that we have to guard against,” said Obama.
But while elections are coming soon, the pending goal line for reaching a framework deal with experience with generic viagra Iran is also the end of March, and Netanyahu has made it clear that he wants to do everything he can to prevent a bad agreement with Iran.
The New York Sun, in an editorial on Monday, called Obama’s argument that the speech looks political “disingenuous” and “outrageous.” The editorial then pointed out, citing an editorial The New York Sun editor Seth Lipsky wrote in Haaretz, that the scenario is remarkably similar to the start of World War II.
Lipsky, in his article, compared the silencing of Israel—the target of Iran should Tehran get the bomb—to the refusal to grant Czechoslovakia a seat at the talks with Germany that ultimately ended up carving out some of the Czech territory for Nazi Germany in a desperate attempt to achieve peace. Not long after, Germany launched World War II.
Lipsky’s point was that of all people, Netanyahu should be allowed to present his points on Iran, since he is the one threated the most by a nuclear-armed Iran.
And time is running out.
The next goal for the nuclear talks with Iran is to reach a framework deal by the end of March. The pressure to make progress is growing, as it appears that if there is not enough movement by the end of June deadline, the talks will end.
As Obama, in his comments at the press conference on Monday, said, “at this juncture, I don’t see a further extension being useful if they have not agreed to the basic formulation and the bottom line that the world requires to have confidence that they’re not pursuing a nuclear weapon.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, February 9, 2015)