Netanyahu's Advice to Obama and UN - Beware of Iran's Smiles

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former American UN Ambassador John Bolton have similar messages for President Obama and the world. Beware of Iran and its smiling new President Hassan Rouhani. Bolton says Rouhani is telling President Barack Obama what he wants to hear and is thereby buying time to build a nuclear bomb. Bolton, now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, says that Iran is following Russian President Putin's lead : "Just as Vladimir Putin had played him for a fool over Syria, Mr. Obama was initially snubbed by Iranian President Hasan Rouhani despite frantic White House efforts to produce a handshake," Bolton wrote in a Sunday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. And Bolton says it's not the first time Rouhani has misled the West. Rouhani was Iran's chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005, when he successfully followed the same playbook : "By offering what appeared to be concessions, Iran acquired precious time and legitimacy to overcome scientific and technical glitches in its nuclear-weapons program, particularly at Isfahan's uranium-conversion facility," according to Bolton. Rouhani even boasted of his successes in articles and speeches. In 2006, Rouhani said, "by creating a calm environment, we were able to complete the work on Isfahan." Bolton provided a list of what he described as Obama's failures over the past year : "Mr. Obama failed in his stated objective to oust Syria's Assad regime from power; failed to impress Assad that his 'red line' against using chemical weapons was serious; failed to exact retribution when that red line was crossed; failed to rally anything but small minorities in either house of Congress to support his position; and failed to grasp that agreements with the likes of Syria and Russia prolong, rather than solve, the chemical-weapons problem." Bolton says these failures have convinced Iran's ayatollahs that the Obama threat that "all options are on the table" against their nuclear program carries no weight. ~~~~~ Meanwhile, very worried that the world may be warming up to Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried an unpopular message to the White House and to the United Nations this week : Don't be fooled by Teheran's new leadership. Netanyahu contends Iran's conciliatory gestures are a smoke screen, a hoax, to conceal an unabated march toward a nuclear bomb. He delivered that strong message, along with new intelligence, to attempt to persuade the US to maintain the tough economic sanctions that seem to have brought Iran to the world's table and not allow the islamic republic to develop a bomb or move closer to becoming a nuclear threshold state. Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday : "Israel will not allow Iran to possess a nuclear bomb. If Israel has to stand alone, it will; but, it will be standing alone on behalf of many, many others." With the White House optimistic about its dialogue with Iran, Monday's meeting between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama was another, albeit lower key, Netanyahu lecture : "I will tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the onslaught of smiles," Netanyahu said before boarding his flight to the US on Sunday. "Telling the truth today is vital for the security and peace of the world and, of course, it is vital for the security of the state of Israel." Israeli leaders watched apprehensively as Rouhani delivered a conciliatory speech at the United Nations in which he repeated Iran's official position that it has no intention of building a nuclear weapon and declared his readiness for new negotiations with the West. Rouhani and Obama also had a 15-minute phone call as the Iranian leader was traveling to the airport. By the end of the call, the first conversation between the nation's leaders since 1979, Obama suggested that a breakthrough on the nuclear issue could lead to even deeper ties between the US and Iran. European and American diplomats hailed a "very significant shift" in Iran's attitude and tone. But, for Netanyahu, such sentiments are a nightmare. For years, he has warned that Iran is steadily marching toward the development of nuclear weapons, an intelligence-backed position that is widely shared by the West because of Iran's continued hidden-from-the-world enrichment of uranium and repeated run-ins with international nuclear inspectors. The Israeli prime minister says Rouhani's outreach is a ploy to ease international sanctions and buy time. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran an unacceptable threat, given repeated Iranian assertions that the Jewish state should not exist. Israel has a list of other grievances against Iran, citing its support for hostile Arab militant groups, its development of long-range missiles and alleged Iranian involvement in attacks on Israeli targets in Europe and Asia. Netanyahu continues to hammer home that the new Iranian leader must be judged on his actions, not his kind words, saying that sanctions and the threat of military action must be increased. Netanyahu appears to enjoy widespread domestic support for his tough approach. Israel's Channel 10 TV released the results of a poll Sunday night showing that 78% of respondents don't believe Iran wants to resolve the nuclear problem, while 59% said they do not think the US will reach an agreement with Iran and just 29% said they expect a resolution. Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to the US who is now a Netanyahu advisor, said the prime minister presented Obama with "some very hard facts" based on intelligence showing that Iranian behavior has not changed. Netanyahu's intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz, said international pressure forced Iran to slow production but not halt it. American officials say there are no plans to reverse the latest diplomatic push. Senior Obama administration officials said that the US expects Israel to be skeptical about Iran's overture, and that America is also skeptical. Obama reportedly tried to assure Netanyahu that if the US reaches a deal with Iran, it will ultimately advance Israel's security interests by resolving the nuclear issue without the need for military intervention, but that Obama's bottom line remains that Iran can't be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel wants the US to establish clear "red lines" to prevent Iran from pressing forward with its nuclear program and moving toward the threshold status of having the capability to build a nuclear weapon without actually possessing one. That scenario is unacceptable to Israel. Netanyahu has laid out four demands: that Iran stop enriching uranium; that its stockpiles of enriched uranium be removed from the country; that a fortified underground enrichment facility be closed; and that Iran not make plutonium, another possible path toward nuclear weapons. ~~~~~ Dear readers, it is very difficult to carry out the lengthy, detailed negotiations required to have any chance of stopping Iran's secret nuclear development program before it ends in a nuclear bomb, while being aware that Iran is certainly continuing toward that end. The better approach would be for the US and Europe to choose Israel's realism by calling Iran's bluff and demanding full nuclear program disclosure and inspections as the first step in easing the sanctions Iran so badly needs to be free of.