Hammond taken to task by Israeli PM over Iran nuclear deal
Netanyahu denies he would have opposed any agreement and says he is seeking a ‘genuine and effective diplomatic solution’
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU delivered a sharp rebuff to Philip Hammond over the Iran nuclear deal yesterday, publicly dismissing the Foreign Secretary’s assertion that Israel would have been unhappy with any agreement.
In a tense face-to-face exchange that reflected the gulf between Israel and the six world powers who negotiated with Tehran, the Israeli prime minister rejected the visiting British minister’s efforts to sell the pact signed this week in Vienna.
At the same time, he tackled head-on criticisms that Mr Hammond had voiced on the eve of his trip.
“Israelis know better than anyone else the cost of permanent conflict with Iran and it is wrong to suggest that Israel wants such an outcome. We seek a genuine and effective diplomatic solution,” Mr Netanyahu told Mr Hammond in Jerusalem.
“The alternative to this deal is not war. The alternative is a better deal that would roll back Iran’s military nuclear program and tie the easing of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme to changes in Iran’s behaviour.
“That’s the kind of deal that would be welcomed in Tel Aviv and here in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.”
The Israeli leader’s comments were aimed directly at Mr Hammond’s earlier criticisms. The Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Israel opposed any accord with Tehran and would prefer permanent conflict.
“The question you have to ask yourself is what kind of a deal would have been welcomed in Tel Aviv?” the For- eign Secretary asked MPs. “The answer, of course, is that Israel doesn’t want any deal with Iran. Israel wants a permanent state of stand-off and I don’t believe that’s in the interests of the region.”
He was the second leading European politician publicly to question Israel’s response to Tuesday’s agreement, which Mr Netanyahu has denounced as a “historic mistake”.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s foreign minister, earlier accused Israel of criticising the deal “in a very coarse way” and urged it instead to take a closer look, calling the agreement “respon- sible”. Under the deal, crippling economic sanctions will be lifted from Iran in exchange for it drastically limiting its nuclear programme for up to 15 years under conditions that even many Israeli analysts concede will make it harder for Tehran’s theocratic rulers to develop an atom bomb.
Nevertheless, Mr Netanyahu was as strident as ever yesterday, contradicting Mr Hammond’s statement that the settlement “achieved the fundamental aim of preventing Iran from delivering nuclear weapons”.
“The deal agreed to in Vienna, I regret to say, paves this terrorist regime’s path to the bomb,” he said. “It lifts the sanctions today and paves the path to the bomb tomorrow … But the interesting part isn’t only that you have given them sanctions relief. You have also given them hundreds of millions of dollars that they can fuel into their terrorist activities and into their war machine.”
Mr Hammond delivered a sharp riposte after Mr Netanyahu asked why Britain had not condemned Iran for last week’s Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally at which demonstrators chanted: “Death to Israel.”
“We will judge Iran not by the chants on the streets of Tehran, but by the actions of its government,” the Foreign Secretary said.
Meanwhile, David Cameron told Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani in a phone call yesterday that Britain remained committed to reopening the British embassy in Tehran.
“The Prime Minister expressed his hope that this deal would mark a fresh start in bilateral relations between the UK and Iran and in Iran’s role in the region,” Downing Street said.