Netanyahu knocks U.S. tack

At Capitol, Iranian deal called futile

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pauses during one of dozens of standing ovations during his speech Tuesday to a joint session of Congress. Standing on the front row at left is Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark.; across the aisle three chairs down in the second row is Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pauses during one of dozens of standing ovations during his speech Tuesday to a joint session of Congress. Standing on the front row at left is Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark.; across the aisle three chairs down in the second row is Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu challenged President Barack Obama in a speech to U.S. lawmakers and said an emerging agreement with Iran would backfire and ensure the Islamic Republic gains a nuclear arsenal.

photo

AP

President Barack Obama comments Tuesday at the White House on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. Obama said he saw nothing new in Netanyahu’s remarks.

"That deal would not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons -- it would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them," Netanyahu said Tuesday in Washington, speaking at a joint meeting of the House and Senate in an effort to head off an accord being negotiated between Iran and world powers. "It paves Iran's path to the bomb."

Obama shot back, saying that "as far as I can tell, there was nothing new" in the remarks.

"On the core issue, which is how do we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the prime minister didn't offer any viable alternatives," the president told reporters at the White House.

"The alternative the prime minister offers is no deal, in which case Iran will immediately begin once again to pursue a nuclear program, accelerate its nuclear program, without us having any insight into what they're doing and without constraints," Obama said.

Netanyahu accepted an invitation from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to address Congress without consulting Obama's administration, adding to tensions with an ally that provides $3.1 billion a year in military aid to Israel.

Obama has said he won't invite Netanyahu to the White House because the visit is just two weeks before Israel's March 17 election.

Netanyahu tried to defuse some of the political tension that preceded his arrival by praising Obama for all he has done to support Israel. Netanyahu cited several instances when he had called the president for help, such as seeking more missile interceptors during Israel's military operations against Hamas.

"I will always be grateful to President Obama for that support," Netanyahu told lawmakers.

He repeated a comment he made elsewhere Monday lamenting the furor that had surrounded his visit. "I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political," he said. "That was never my intention. I want to thank you Democrats and Republicans for your common support for Israel, year after year, decade after decade."

But he did not succeed in mollifying all the lawmakers. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., issued a statement after the speech saying she "was near tears" because she was "saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States" and "the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran."

At least 40 Democratic lawmakers skipped the speech in protest.

Netanyahu drew a standing ovation when he entered a House chamber and dozens more during the speech as he denounced Iran.

The prime minister told Congress that Iran's "tentacles of terror" were already clutching Israel and that failing to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons "could well threaten the survival of my country."

"We must all stand together to stop Iran's march of conquest, subjugation and terror," Netanyahu told the lawmakers.

Netanyahu said an accord would leave Iran with a vast nuclear program. He said thousands of centrifuges used to enrich uranium "would be left spinning" and that "thousands more would be temporarily disconnected but not destroyed."

"This is a bad deal," Netanyahu said. "This is a very bad deal. We're better off without it."

He said a better deal can be obtained by "keeping up the pressure on a very vulnerable regime, especially given the recent collapse in the price of oil."

Saying that Iran is "gobbling up" nations such as Iraq and Yemen, Netanyahu said the world powers should insist that Iran "change its behavior" during the course of any nuclear agreement, if not before a deal is signed.

Netanyahu argued that Iran remained as radical and untrustworthy as ever, even though it and the U.S. were effectively on the same side in battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

"This regime will always be an enemy of America," Netanyahu said. "Don't be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn't turn Iran into a friend of America. Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam."

An administration official said Netanyahu essentially is demanding a regime change in Iran rather than a negotiated deal. Unless the Iranian government were overthrown, the official said, the options would be to accept a nuclear-capable Iran or take military action that would set back the nuclear program for a much shorter time than a negotiated agreement.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, praised the speech, which he said "crystallized a lot of thinking." He said Netanyahu helped make the case for legislation that would force the administration to receive congressional approval before sanctions on Iran are lifted.

The bill would require Obama to submit any agreement reached with Tehran to Congress within five days. It also would give Congress 60 days to review it before any economic sanctions could be eased.

Hours after Netanyahu's speech, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved to bypass the committee process and send the bill straight to the floor for debate and a vote.

New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a key Democratic sponsor of the legislation, expressed his frustration with GOP leaders who want to fast-track the bill.

"Frankly, this is not what was intended, and it certainly is against my better judgment, against procedure, against any understanding we might have had to take the politics out of our effort to establish congressional oversight of any nuclear agreement with Iran," he said.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada echoed Menendez's comments.

"Partisan politics are cheap and ephemeral, but the state of Israel must last forever," Reid said. "For congressional leaders, building and preserving the broadest possible bipartisan coalition to stand against Israel's enemies should be our guiding principle."

The administration has said Obama would veto the bill if it were sent to his desk, and lawmakers may not have enough votes to override the president.

'we're trying, we're trying'

Netanyahu spoke at the same time Secretary of State John Kerry and Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, continued their talks in Switzerland. In comments published Tuesday in the Iranian news media, Zarif bluntly rejected the conditions Obama outlined for Iran's nuclear program.

"Iran will not accept excessive and illogical demands," Zarif was quoted as saying. "It is clear that Obama's comments are meant to win the U.S. public opinion and counter the propaganda campaign by the Israeli prime minister."

But in separate public comments in Montreux, Switzerland, Zarif was more conciliatory. "We're trying, we're trying," he responded to a question about how the negotiations were going.

Kerry said the biggest hurdle now is whether Tehran is willing to make tough political decisions to strike a deal before the deadline later this month.

Zarif said Iran would continue negotiating.

"There is a seriousness that we need to move forward," he said.

Netanyahu in the past has threatened Israeli airstrikes to thwart Iran, though it would take U.S. military capabilities to do more than delay an Iranian effort to develop nuclear weapons.

The U.S. and its allies say Iran has been seeking the capability to build nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic says its program is purely for peaceful, civilian purposes.

Israel is widely thought to possess its own nuclear arsenal, though it has never acknowledged that or signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The tensions between the U.S. and Israel and the speech by Netanyahu played to an eager audience in Iran.

The news media there has highlighted the division as evidence that Israel is being isolated by its otherwise steadfast ally, and analysts are examining how the rift might affect the outcome of the nuclear negotiations.

"Israel's prime minister tries to maximize the stakes and raise the expectation for the outcome of the talks," Hamid Reza Taraghi, a political analyst close to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said after Netanyahu's speech.

"This speech shows the deal is imminent, this is why Mr. Netanyahu is desperate," said Farshad Ghorbanpour, a policy analyst in Iran who is close to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. "It is not important what he says in Congress; the deal is coming."

Iranian news outlets reported on protests in front of the Washington headquarters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel's main lobby group in the United States.

"People are shouting slogans in favor of Iran," the semiofficial news agency Tasnim reported Tuesday, showing pictures of Jewish men belonging to a sect that opposes Zionism. In one image, a man could be seen holding up a sign saying, "AIPAC violates Judaism."

But beyond the evident glee over the disagreements between Washington and Jerusalem, most Iranian analysts said they did not think Netanyahu's speech would really damage ties between the United States and Israel.

"This is more of a political game for Netanyahu," said Nasser Hadian, a professor of political science at the University of Tehran. "After his elections, he will start mending ties again."

Speech seen as politics

In Israel, Netanyahu's political opponents called his speech a campaign gimmick in a race the prime minister is trailing, and they condemned him for scarring Israel's ties with Obama.

"This speech is a hit to Israel's relations with the United States," said Isaac Herzog, head of the Zionist Union that narrowly leads Netanyahu's Likud party in pre-election polls. "It won't change the government's position and will only widen the rift with our strong friend and our only strategic partner. This is a rift for which we will all pay a price."

"There's no question that Prime Minister Netanyahu knows how to give a good speech," Herzog said in the speech broadcast in Israel. "But let's be frank, the speech that we heard today, as impressive as it was, won't stop a nuclear Iran, and it will not influence a nuclear deal."

The Zionist Union unveiled campaign posters focusing on the dispute with the U.S. The ads feature a Netanyahu quote describing reported rifts with the U.S. as "nonsense," placed next to the statement last week by National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who said the prime minister's speech was "destructive of the fabric" of Israel's relationship with the U.S.

Opposition parties failed in efforts to have the speech banned from the airwaves as election propaganda. It was broadcast in Israel during its evening news program after the Central Election Commission ruled that the speech could be broadcast with a five-minute delay to limit its use for campaign purposes.

"With one speech to Congress, Netanyahu is destroying everything accomplished over the past decade in the struggle against the Iranian nuclear program," Yair Lapid, head of the opposition Yesh Atid party, said on Israel Radio.

By openly confronting the United States over the negotiations with Iran, the prime minister is spoiling any chance for Israel to be directly involved in the future supervision of the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, Lapid said.

Information for this article was contributed by Billy House, Kathleen Hunter, Kathleen Miller, Sangwon Yoon, Mike Dorning, Justin Sink, David Wainer, Calev Ben-David and staff members of Bloomberg News; by Peter Baker, Isabel Kershner, Michael Gordon and Thomas Erdbrink of The New York Times; by Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press; and by Carol Morello and Brian Murphy of The Washington Post.

A Section on 03/04/2015

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