A skeptical Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday directly warned US President Barack Obama not to accept any Iran deal that would allow Tehran to become a "threshold nuclear power." Netanyahu and Obama renewed their often prickly relationship in the Oval Office, meeting for the first time since their governments swapped some of the harshest rhetoric in years over the Gaza crisis.
The Israeli leader, who is deeply skeptical of Obama's bid to broker a deal on constraining Iran's nuclear program before a deadline next month, delivered a clear signal that Israel is dismayed at the outlines of a possible agreement. "Iran seeks a deal that would lift the tough sanctions that you worked so hard to put in place and leave it as a threshold nuclear power," Netanyahu said, as he sat next to Obama.
"I fervently hope that under your leadership that would not happen," Netanyahu told Obama. Netanyahu said at the United Nations this week that Iran was trying to "bamboozle" the world into sealing a nuclear deal that would leave Tehran with the capacity of thousands of centrifuges to enrich uranium. The nuclear threshold is the point at which a nation is considered to have the radioactive material, equipment and know-how to quickly produce a nuclear device, but has not yet taken the decision to do so.
The Israeli leader left after spending 90 minutes in the White House without speaking to the press. Netanyahu's remarks on Iran highlighted the long-standing disagreement between Israel and the Obama administration on the nuclear talks involving Tehran, the permanent five members of the UN Security Council and Germany.
Washington wants to extract concessions from Iran to significantly expand the time it would take for the Islamic Republic to create enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb. Israel wants a complete dismantling of what it calls Tehran's "military nuclear program" and for Tehran to be left with zero enrichment capacity after a deal. The US leader has said in the past that such a "perfect" deal is unlikely to be reachable.
Israel says it reserves the right to take military action against Iran's nuclear program if a deal is not reached to dismantle it. Tehran meanwhile denies its program is intended to build a nuclear bomb. Obama said before the Oval Office talks with Netanyahu that he would bring the Israeli leader up to speed "on the progress that has been made with dealing with Iran's nuclear program." Iran says that nuclear talks will resume later this month in Europe ahead of a November 24 deadline.