BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed clear opposition yesterday to the proposed short-term nuclear deal being discussed by P5+1 powers (US, UK, China, Russia, France and Germany) and Iran.

Talks between the P5+1 powers and Iranian officials ended in Geneva over the weekend without a short-term deal being concluded, the two sides will resume negotiations in ten days time. Although details of the draft six-month agreement being discussed were not made public, senior US negotiator Wendy Sherman visited Israel on Friday to report on the talks.

Speaking yesterday in Jerusalem at a major conference of North American Jewish communities, Netanyahu expressed his opposition to what he called a “bad deal” being discussed in Geneva. He said, “What is being proposed now is a deal in which Iran retains all of that [enrichment] capacity… Not one centrifuge is dismantled; not one. Iran gets to keep tons of low enriched uranium.” He pledged, “When it comes to Jewish survival and the survival of the Jewish state, I will not be silenced, ever.” Netanyahu also yesterday told his cabinet that he had spoken to world leaders over the weekend, emphasising that the proposed deal should not be rushed as it was “Dangerous to world peace,”.

In an apparent response to Netanyahu, US Secretary of State John Kerry told NBC’s Meet the Press programme that “We are not blind, and I don’t think we’re stupid,” adding “I think we have a pretty strong sense of how to measure whether or not we are acting in the interests of our country and of the globe, and particularly of our allies like Israel and Gulf states and others in the region.”

Meanwhile, an unnamed American official briefed journalists at a Jerusalem hotel emphasising a purely tactical difference, saying that “We all [P5+1 powers] want a comprehensive agreement, as does Israel. The question is how to get there,”