Top Obama aide: Netanyahu’s
speech damaging ‘fabric’ of ties
National security adviser Susan Rice says relationship between the two countries has become ‘infused with politics’
In a searing rebuke of the
Israeli prime minister, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice warned
Tuesday that Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech in
front of a joint session of Congress has cast a partisan pall over the
ties between the two close allies and threatened “the fabric of the
relationship.”
In
an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, Rice faulted both Netanyahu and
the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, who extended
the invitation to the prime minister to address Congress on Iran, for
creating the current “destructive” situation.
“What has happened over the last several
weeks, by virtue of the invitation that was issued by the speaker and
the acceptance of it by Prime Minister Netanyahu, two weeks in advance
of his election, is that on both sides there has now been injected a
degree of partisanship which is not only unfortunate; it’s destructive
of the fabric of the relationship,” she said.
“The relationship between Israel as a country
and the United States as a country has always been bipartisan,” Rice
noted, emphasizing that keeping US-Israel ties free of local politics
was in the best interest of both countries.
“It’s always been bipartisan; we need to keep
it that way,” she said. “We want it that way. I think Israel wants it
that way, the Israeli people want it that way. When it becomes infused
with politics that’s a problem.”
Netanyahu’s speech is controversial because it
puts Israel on a collision course with the Obama administration as it
negotiates with Iran over its nuclear program — talks that in their
current form could lead to a deal that potentially poses an existential
risk to Israel, Netanyahu has warned. Thus, he intends to argue before
Congress on March 3 that the international community should increase its
pressure on Iran, rather than ease sanctions against it under the
reported terms of the emerging nuclear deal.
The speech is also set just two weeks before
the prime minister faces elections back home, a fact that critics in
Israel and the US have seized on to accuse Netanyahu of using the
address to drum up support for his Likud party. But Rice was careful to
avoid characterizing Netanyahu’s motives for pursuing the speech, which
is openly opposed by the White House, some Democratic legislators, and
many within the US Jewish community, as anything but genuine.
“I’m not going to ascribe motives to the prime
minister,” she said. “Let him explain for himself. The point is we want
the relationship between the United States and Israel to unquestionably
be strong, immutable, regardless of political seasons in either
country, regardless of which country maybe in charge in either country.
We’ve worked very hard to have that and we will work very hard to
maintain that.”
While Israeli officials have lambasted the
emerging deal with Iran based on initial leaks — claiming it doesn’t do
enough to curb the nuclear ambitions of an implacable enemy of the
Jewish state — Rice insisted that the terms of the agreement would prove
themselves over time.
“They [the Iranans] are not going to be able
to convince anybody on day one that they have stopped enrichment,” she
said, fielding a question on whether Washington should ease sanctions
immediately upon inking an agreement. “They’re going to have to prove
over time through their actions which will be validated that they are,
in fact, upholding their commitments.”
Rice insisted that Iran has kept its end of an
interim agreement from over a year ago, including disposing of its 20
percent enriched uranium, increasing its transparency on nuclear
development and allowing inspections of its facilities.
“They have enabled us to validate that they
have, in fact, taken all the steps that they committed to take and that
they’re in full compliance,” she said. “That model will need to be
sustained in any comprehensive agreement. We’ll need to be able to see
and test and verify that the commitments they’ve made are actually being
implemented.”
“The policy is Iran will not get a nuclear weapon,” Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier Tuesday,
rejecting “uninformed” criticism of the emerging deal. “And anybody
running around right now, jumping in to say, well, we don’t like the
deal, or this or that, doesn’t know what the deal is. There is no deal
yet.”
“I don’t know anybody who looks at the interim
agreement and doesn’t say, wow, this has really worked — including
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who would like to see it extended,
having opposed it vehemently in the beginning, calling it the deal of
the century for Iran,” he continued.
Still, questions persist regarding some aspects of Iran’s nuclear program. Earlier this month International Atomic Energy Agency Chairman Yukiya Amano
said that Iran was still being evasive on various activities. Amano
told Israel Radio that the Islamic Republic had so far been unresponsive
to a series of questions regarding its nuclear program and had failed
to adequately address concerns over its alleged attempts to develop
atomic weapons.
Nonetheless, in January the IAEA published a report that
Iran is honoring its commitment not to expand atomic activities that
could be used to make weapons while it negotiates with six world powers
on a lasting nuclear deal.
Britain, China, France, Russia, the United
States and Germany — known as the P5+1 — have been seeking a
comprehensive accord that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear
bomb, in return for an easing of sanctions.
The cut-off point for the technical details of such an accord is June 30.
Rice’s harsh criticism of Netanyahu came as Jewish Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Ten.) joined a growing group of Democratic lawmakers publicly eschewing the prime minister’s speech.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu turned down
an invitation to meet privately with Senate Democrats next week during
his visit to Washington, saying the session “could compound the
misperception of partisanship” surrounding his trip.
Times of Israel staff and AP contributed to this report
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