The smile offensive conducted by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani at the UN has not been greeted with smiles in Israel. While welcoming a “genuine diplomatic solution” to the Iranian nuclear challenge, the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, this week warned the world not to be “fooled by half-measures that merely provide a smokescreen for Iran’s continual pursuit of nuclear weapons”. Iran’s history of deceit on this issue calls for rephrasing President Reagan’s famous reference to the Soviet Union: “Do not trust but verify.” Give Rouhani a chance, but test him by his deeds. Israel neither trusts Rouhani nor fully relies on President Obama’s resolve.

Speaking at the UN general assembly last year, Netanyahu drew a red line at Iranian production of one bomb’s worth of 20% enriched uranium. In the past year, however, advances in the Iranian programme have made this red line irrelevant. In addition, Rouhani was voted in offering another chance for diplomacy, while Obama equivocated on his own red line regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria. From Israel’s perspective, spinning open-ended diplomacy while centrifuges continue to spin – and while there is no credible military deterrent – is a dangerous situation.

Read the article in full at the Guardian.