Netanyahu to Tell Obama Iran Concerns Trump Islamic State

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with President Barack Obama today at the White House in a bid to find common ground on Iran talks after a year of disputes over making peace with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu said he would stress to Obama the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, amid concern in Israel that the U.S. may lose focus on the issue because of its military campaign against Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria.

“We all support the effort led by President Obama to stop and defeat ISIS,” Netanyahu told a gathering of American Jewish community leaders in New York yesterday, using an acronym for Islamic State’s former name. “But to defeat ISIS, and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power, is to win the battle and lose the war.”

World powers are negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program as a U.S.-led military alliance strikes Islamic State, an al-Qaeda splinter group that has seized parts of Iraq and Syria and gained notoriety for beheadings and crucifixions. Although Iran isn’t part of that coalition, it’s also helping its Iraqi and Syrian allies to fight the militant group, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has said it has a role to play in defeating Islamic State.

Netanyahu says a nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat to Israel’s survival, and “all options” including a military strike, are possible to prevent that happening.
No Trade-Off

The Israeli leader dismisses Iran’s claim that its nuclear program is peaceful, and says any deal reached with Iran must force it to end uranium enrichment and other activities that could be used to create weapons.

Israel isn’t a party to the Iran talks, which are set to resume within two weeks with a goal of reaching an accord by Nov. 22.

While Israel understandably wants to refocus the world’s attention on Iran’s nuclear ambitions as Islamic State atrocities grab the headlines, it’s a mistake to question the Obama administration’s resolve on Iran, according to David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“I sharply disagree with the view that there’s any kind of trade-off between the ISIS and Iran issues, because Obama’s coalition is basically comprised of Sunni states who are also very wary of any nuclear accommodation with Iran,” Makovsky said in a phone interview. Iran’s main regional rival, Saudi Arabia, is among the countries supporting U.S. action against Islamic State.
‘War Crimes’

The relationship between Obama and Netanyahu has been marked over the years by some sharp disagreements on Mideast peacemaking. Ties were further strained by the collapse of U.S.- sponsored talks with the Palestinians in April and the Israeli military operation in Gaza in July and August that drew international criticism over civilian casualties.

Prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal receded still further this week, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 26 that Israel had carried out a “war of genocide” in Gaza.

Netanyahu responded at the UN on Sept. 28 by accusing Hamas, which rules Gaza, of using civilians as human shields, and blaming Abbas for reconciling with the Islamist group.

“President Abbas, these are the crimes, the war crimes, committed by your Hamas partners in the national unity government which you head and you are responsible for,” the Israeli premier said. Israel, like the U.S. and European Union, considers Hamas a terrorist group.
Arab Interests

Netanyahu said yesterday that the threat posed by Islamic State and other extremist Islamist movements has created “a growing convergence of interest between Israel and the major Arab states” that could help in crafting an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. “That is certainly a subject I intend to take up with President Obama,” he said.

Obama will be looking for Netanyahu to present new ideas about Palestinian peace talks, according to Makovsky, who recently stepped down from the team put together by Kerry to steer the talks that broke down in April.

“The U.S. isn’t ready to give up on the peace process, and the regional convergence Netanyahu is referring to could be useful,” Makovsky said. “But it has to be integrated into the peace process with the Palestinians rather than presented as an alternative to it.”

Bloomberg