From the Liveblog of
Monday, September 30, 2013
Peres, underlining Israel’s wariness, all but calls Rouhani a liar
The Times of Israel’s Raphael Ahren, who is traveling with the prime minister, says Netanyahu may present US leaders with new intelligence showing that the Iranian drive to the bomb has not slowed since Rouhani took office in August. “With that in mind,” writes Ahren in his scene-setter, Netanyahu is set “to urge Obama to bolster rather than reduce economic sanctions. And he is expected to highlight Israel’s insistence that it reserves the right to defend itself against the Iranian nuclear threat as it sees fit, and seek to have Obama reiterate that all options remain on the table in confronting the rogue Iranian nuclear program.”
In an op-ed yesterday, Times of Israel editor David Horovitz says Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s advancement of Rouhani is looking increasingly like a masterstroke. “Whether the supreme leader had this all mapped out, anticipating that Rouhani would first capture the people’s vote at home, and then sally forth to such spectacular effect overseas, or whether he has been pleasantly surprised by Rouhani’s capacity to so rapidly remake the Islamic Republic’s international image without a single substantive concession on the nuclear front, the result has surely exceeded even his most optimistic visions.”
If the West “melts in the warmth of a duplicitous Rouhani embrace,” Horovitz warns, “if the threat of military intervention is further weakened and economic pressure eased without the regime being rendered incapable of speeding to the bomb, Iran will have thoroughly outsmarted the US and those who depend on American leadership.”
In The Hague earlier today, meanwhile, Shimon Peres, who has NOT been a critic of the nascent US-Iran detente, nonetheless acidly noted the contrast between Rouhani’s sweet-tempered words at the UN General Assembly and the reality back in Iran. Essentially, Peres called Rouhani a liar: “Rouhani’s speech to the United Nations was impressive,” said Israel’s president, “but it was based on a false reality, as Iranian centrifuges, at this very moment, continue to work and produce enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, the program to develop long-range missiles which can carry nuclear warheads is being expanded and the Revolutionary Guards continue to support terror organizations.”
