Looking to calm tensions, Kerry phones Netanyahu
Top US diplomat says he does not want Congress speech on Iran turned into ‘political football’
Secretary of State John Kerry spoke by phone on Saturday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior State Department official told The New York Times.
The call came amid heightened tensions between Israel and the US over nuclear talks between a US-led coalition of western powers and Iran, and Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to the US Congress in which he will argue against an emerging deal.
Kerry has attacked Netanyahu personally in recent days, implying last week that the Israeli premier’s support for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 was an indication of faulty judgment.
On Sunday, Kerry tried to calm tensions ahead of Netanyahu’s address. He insisted the Obama administration’s record on Iran entitled the US to “the benefit of the doubt” as negotiators work toward a long-term nuclear deal.
Kerry said — in an interview broadcast before he left for more talks in Switzerland with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif — that Netanyahu was welcome to speak in the US and that the administration did not want the event “turned into some great political football.”
That sentiment was a step back from some of the sharp rhetoric between the allies in recent weeks.
But Kerry stressed that Israel was safer as a result of the short-term nuclear pact that world powers and Iran reached in late 2013, and he described that improvement as the “standard we will apply to any agreement” with Tehran.
Officials have described the United States, Europe, Russia and China as considering a compromise that would see Iran’s nuclear activities severely curtailed for a decade, with the restrictions and US and Western economic penalties eased in the final years of a deal.
“We are going to test whether or not diplomacy can prevent this weapon from being created, so you don’t have to turn to additional measures including the possibility of a military confrontation,” Kerry told ABC’s “This Week.”
“Our hope is that diplomacy can work. And I believe, given our success of the interim agreement, we deserve the benefit of the doubt to find out whether or not we can get a similarly good agreement with respect to the future.”
Netanyahu, set to arrive in Washington later Sunday, will press his opposition to a diplomatic accommodation of Iran’s nuclear program in the speech Tuesday. The prime minister says he is making the address out of concern for Israel’s security.
The invitation from Republican congressional leaders and Netanyahu’s acceptance have caused an uproar that has exposed tensions between Israel and the US, its most important ally.
By consenting to speak, Netanyahu angered the White House, which was not consulted in advance, and many Democrats, who were forced to choose between showing support for Israel and backing the president.
“I will do everything in my ability to secure our future,” Netanyahu said before flying to Washington. He described himself as “an emissary” of the Jewish people.
The congressional speech has also sparked criticism in Israel, where Netanyahu is seeking reelection on March 17. He also planned to speak Monday at the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
Netanyahu considers unacceptable any deal that does not dramatically set back Iran’s nuclear program. But President Barack Obama is willing to leave some nuclear activity intact, backed by safeguards that Iran is not trying to develop a weapon. Iran insists its program is solely for peaceful energy and medical research purposes.
The dispute has become more personal of late.
Last week, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, described the timing and partisan manner of Netanyahu’s visit as “destructive” for the US-Israeli relationship.
On Sunday, Kerry painted a more positive picture of continued close cooperation. He said the US-Israeli security partnership was closer than at any point before, and noted the large investment of American money in the Jewish state’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
He said the US government has “intervened on Israel’s behalf in the last two years a couple of hundred times” — in more than 75 fora — “in order to protect Israel.”
