This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/01/us/politics/tensions-over-iran-seem-to-ebb-between-netanyahu-and-obama.html

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Tensions Over Iran Seem to Ebb Between Netanyahu and Obama Discussing Iran, Obama and Netanyahu Display Unity
(about 5 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, meeting with President Obama after his historic phone conversation last week with the Iranian president, said Monday that he was comforted to hear Mr. Obama say that Tehran’s words needed to be matched by actions. WASHINGTON — Neither President Obama nor Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel mentioned Hassan Rouhani after their meeting at the White House on Monday morning.
Mr. Netanyahu, who has warned that Iran’s diplomatic overture regarding its nuclear program could be a trap for the United States, said that he and Mr. Obama agreed that the chief objective remained ensuring that Iran did not acquire a nuclear weapon. They didn’t have to: President Rouhani, whom Mr. Netanyahu has labeled a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and whom Mr. Obama phoned last week in the first leader-to-leader contact between the United States and Iran in 34 years, was the obvious, if unspoken, subject of the discussion.
“The ultimate test of a future agreement with Iran is whether or not Iran dismantles its nuclear program,” Mr. Netanyahu said to reporters after meeting with Mr. Obama in the Oval Office. Mr. Netanyahu said he was comforted to hear Mr. Obama declare that Iran’s “conciliatory words have to be matched by real actions.” The president said he would take no options off the table, including military action, to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
But the Israeli leader went out of his way to praise the president for putting in place sanctions, as well as threatening military force, which together, he said, “have brought Iran to the negotiating table.” It was a disciplined show of unity by two leaders who have clashed in the past over how to deal with the nuclear threat from Iran, and may soon face further strains as the United States tests the diplomatic overture made by Mr. Rouhani last week at the United Nations.
Mr. Obama, while acknowledging the opening with Iran, said: “We enter into these negotiations very cleareyed. They will not be easy, and anything we do will require the highest standards of verification in order for us to provide the sort of sanctions relief that I think they are looking for.” Negotiators from Iran and six world powers, including the United States, are scheduled to meet on Oct. 15 in Geneva to discuss how to curb the Iranian nuclear program. Iran, analysts say, will have to put a much broader proposal on the table if it expects relief from sanctions that have devastated its economy.
Mr. Netanyahu is scheduled to speak to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. His visit with Mr. Obama amounted to a political gut-check after a week of diplomatic developments during the visit of Iran’s newly elected president, Hassan Rouhani, to the United Nations. “At this point, it’s easy for them to agree,” said Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Should the Iranians offer something that the West finds attractive, and that the Israelis have problems with, then the rubber meets the road.”
The Israeli government has clearly been rattled by Mr. Rouhani’s diplomatic offensive, leaking word that Mr. Netanyahu, in his General Assembly speech, would liken Iran’s initiative to that of North Korea, which signed an agreement in 2005 to relinquish its nuclear weapons, only to renege a year later. Analysts and former administration officials said the Iranian government had not yet come to grips with the scale of the concessions they will have to make to obtain even modest relief from sanctions.
In their remarks to reporters, however, Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu showed little obvious signs of tension over the phone call with Mr. Rouhani or other issues. Mr. Netanyahu also thanked the president for Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to broker a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, another issue that has sometimes divided them. Mr. Netanyahu has laid out a list of demands, including that Iran relinquish its right to enrich uranium, turn over its stockpile of enriched nuclear fuel, dismantle its Fordo nuclear facility and suspend construction of a heavy-water reactor at Arak.
On Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu is scheduled to speak to the United Nations General Assembly. His visit with Mr. Obama beforehand amounted to a political gut-check after a week of dizzying diplomatic developments during Mr. Rouhani’s visit to New York.
The Israeli government has clearly been rattled by the Iranian charm offensive, leaking word last week that Mr. Netanyahu, in his General Assembly speech, would liken Iran’s diplomatic initiative to that of a similar one in 2005 by North Korea, which signed an agreement to relinquish its nuclear weapons, only to renege a year later by testing a bomb.
But on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu held his fire. He called for the sanctions to be kept in place until Iran showed “verifiable” progress in the nuclear negotiations. And he credited Mr. Obama’s pressure tactics, along with the threat of military action, for bringing Iran to the negotiating table.
“Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction,” he said, “so for Israel, the ultimate test of a future agreement with Iran is whether or not Iran dismantles its military nuclear program.”
Mr. Obama, for his part, acknowledged Israel’s special security concerns and insisted that he had not been beguiled by Mr. Rouhani, with whom he has exchanged letters and, during a 15-minute phone conversation on Friday, exchanged pleasantries in Persian.
After last week’s heady developments, the White House is trying to manage expectations about the grinding diplomacy to come. Mr. Obama’s words on Monday, in fact, sounded like ones he could have delivered six months ago, before Mr. Rouhani was elected and when the prospects for diplomacy looked bleak.
“We enter into these negotiations very clear-eyed,” he said, as Mr. Netanyahu nodded. “They will not be easy, and anything we do will require the highest standards of verification in order for us to provide the sort of sanctions relief that I think they are looking for.”
While Mr. Obama was reassuring Mr. Netanyahu in private, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. delivered a rousing declaration of American support for Israel to J Street, a moderate pro-Israel lobbying group that favors a two-state solution to the conflict.
Drawing applause when he mentioned Mr. Obama’s call to Mr. Rouhani, Mr. Biden said, “We don’t know whether Iran is willing to do what is necessary to get there, but we, along with the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany” want to find out.
Mr. Netanyahu’s show of unity went beyond Iran. He thanked the president for Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to broker a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians, another issue that has divided them. He and Mr. Kerry met later at the State Department.
Unlike in previous visits, Mr. Netanyahu did not lay out caveats or provisos to the current negotiations over a Palestinian state, though he is not moving as quickly as some in the White House say they would like.
“I appreciate the prime minister’s views,” Mr. Obama said, looking more relaxed than he has in past Oval Office encounters with Mr. Netanyahu. “He is always candid.”“I appreciate the prime minister’s views,” Mr. Obama said, looking more relaxed than he has in past Oval Office encounters with Mr. Netanyahu. “He is always candid.”
Analysts said the harmony reflected both that the relationship between the two leaders has genuinely improved in the last year, and that the United States is unlikely to agree to a nuclear deal with Iran over Israel’s objections, if only because Israel will reserve the right to strike militarily if it believes Iran poses a dire threat.
“Whatever negative vibes Netanyahu got, he’ll spare the president and unload on the world and Iran in his speech tomorrow,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
”This is very much a changed relationship, driven by two realities,” Mr. Miller said. “Obama’s realization that tensions were hurting him politically; and second, that if he wants to get anywhere on Middle East issues, he can’t go over the head or around the back of a guy who next year will be the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history.”