As Iran sanctions wither, Israel’s vice PM says world put cash over peace

Sustained international sanctions could cause Iran to abandon both its nuclear ambitions and its support of global terrorism, Israel’s vice prime minister said on Monday, as world powers voted to allow the lifting of those long-standing penalties.

Speaking to members of the foreign press in Jerusalem, Silvan Shalom, who also serves as interior minister, accusing the P5+1 of opting for commercial benefit over world peace.

According to Israeli calculations, he said, Iran stands to gain $500 billion to $750 billion from the lifting of international sanctions.

“The international community preferred the short term over the long term, the present over the future,” Shalom said. “While we are talking about living, others are talking about standards of living.”

Shalom said continued sanctions would force Iran to surrender its nuclear program, citing apartheid South Africa and the Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya as two examples where sanctions had worked.

“Tougher sanctions will cause Iran to entirely abandon its nuclear ambitions and stop supporting terror,” he said at the event organized by The Israel Project.

Shalom’s comments came just hours before the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed the Iran nuclear deal, which removes internationally imposed sanctions on Iran in return for the scaling back of its nuclear program.

The US and other powers that reached the pact with Iran argued that sanctions were useful for getting Iran to the negotiating table, but would not push Tehran away from a nuclear bomb.

While not directly addressing an Israeli attempt to lobby the US Congress to torpedo the deal, Shalom said Israel would continue to “try and convince the world that this is a bad deal.”

“Sanctions usually work,” he said,

Shalom, who is also responsible for the strategic dialogue with the US, said Israeli-American relations remain strong despite the profound Israeli disagreement with the Obama administration over the Iran nuclear deal brokered last week.

He rebuffed reports that Israel would request an increase in American military aid — which currently stands at $3 billion annually — from visiting US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. “Any kind of aid given now would raise the question ‘Do we need this aid?’ … Israel does not need compensation [for the nuclear deal],” he said.

The Iran deal could have far-reaching ramifications on Israel, well beyond a strict security threat, Shalom contended. It could adversely affect investments in Israel, incoming tourism, and even cause large-scale migration.

“Why would young people want to live here when there’s a madman who can press the button at any moment?” he said.

‘Going back to the 1980s’

Shalom reported that preliminary meetings between unnamed Israeli and Palestinian officials have taken place recently with the intention of relaunching peace talks. But he downplayed expectations of any significant progress on the peace track in the near future.

“It’s not a breakthrough, just a beginning. It will take time,” he said.

Blasting the Palestinian bid to isolate Israel diplomatically, Shalom — who holds the negotiations portfolio in the Netanyahu cabinet — seemed to favor a bottom-up approach to the conflict, one often referred to as “economic peace.”

He boasted having added 8,000 work permits in Israel for Palestinians living in the West Bank, as well as 1,500 permits for Jordanians to enter Israel through the Aqaba border crossing, near Eilat.

“I would much rather see Palestinians and Jordanians working here than foreign workers,” Shalom said. “We are going back to the eighties, when tens of thousands of Palestinians were working in Israel.”

Shalom welcomed the EU’s intention to take a more active role in the peace process, but said that in order for Europe to serve as a legitimate broker in the eyes of Israelis, it must abandon any preconditions placed on Israel for entering negotiations.

“They need to adopt a more balanced attitude to the conflict,” he said.