Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the US on Tuesday that it was negotiating a bad deal with Iran that could spark a “nuclear nightmare,” drawing a rebuke from US President Barack Obama and exposing a deepening US-Israeli rift.
They delivered dueling messages within hours of each other.
Netanyahu made his case against Obama’s Iran diplomacy in a speech to the US Congress that aligned himself with the president’s Republican foes. Obama responded in the Oval Office, declaring in a frustrated tone that Netanyahu offered “nothing new.”
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In an appearance boycotted by dozens of Obama’s fellow Democrats, Netanyahu said Iran’s leadership was “as radical as ever” and could not be trusted, adding that the deal being worked out by the US and other world powers would not block Iran’s way to nuclear arms, “but paves its way to a bomb.”
“It will all but guarantee that Iran will get those nuclear weapons, lots of them,” the Israeli leader said. “We’ll face a much more dangerous Iran, a Middle East littered with nuclear bombs and a countdown to a potential nuclear nightmare.”
His speech, a point-by-point critique of Obama’s strategy, drew 26 standing ovations in the Republican-controlled chamber.
Netanyahu both inveighed against the emerging deal and suggested broadening the scope of negotiations to require a change to what he described as Iran’s “aggressive” regional posture — an idea swiftly rejected by the Obama administration as de facto “regime change” in Tehran.
Netanyahu, who said a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten Israel’s existence, also avoided any call for new sanctions now or for a total rollback of Iranian nuclear technologies — a signal that Israel might be able to resign itself to less.
Obama said the prime minister offered no “viable alternatives” to the current course of negotiations.
Netanyahu’s speech culminated a diplomatic storm triggered by his acceptance in January of a Republican invitation that bypassed the White House. Many Democrats considered it an affront to the president.
Obama refused to meet Netanyahu, saying that doing so just ahead of Israel’s March 17 general election would be seen as interference. Obama, who has a history of testy encounters with Netanyahu, said he did not watch the televised speech, but read the transcript.
Underscoring the partisan divide, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the speech “an insult to the intelligence of the United States” and said she was so “saddened by the condescension toward our knowledge of the threat posed by Iran” that she was near tears.
As many as 60 of the 232 Democratic members of Congress sat out the address. Their absence was especially striking given Congress typically unites around the issue of Israeli security.
The boycott by so many lawmakers could raise political heat on Netanyahu at home. Many Israelis are wary of estrangement from the US, which provides their country with wide-ranging military and diplomatic support.
Netanyahu entered the chamber to a cacophony of cheers, shaking hands with lawmakers, including US Speaker of the House John Boehner.
Netanyahu launched a scathing attack on the Iran diplomatic efforts, which face an end-of-month deadline for a framework accord. Netanyahu did not specifically call for new US sanctions, something Obama has said would undermine ongoing talks and would prompt a veto if passed by Congress.
“If the world powers are not prepared to insist that Iran change its behavior before a deal is signed, they should at the very least be prepared to insist that Iran changes its behavior before the deal expires,” Netanyahu said.
He added that while Israel and similarly minded Arab states might not like such a deal, they could live with it, “literally,” he said.
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