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Israeli Leader Excoriates New President of Iran Israeli Leader Excoriates New President of Iran
(about 2 hours later)
UNITED NATIONS — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel sought to shred the credibility of Iran’s new president on Tuesday, using his annual speech at the United Nations to cast the Iranian as a beguiling figure who used soothing words and charm to mask intentions to build nuclear weapons. UNITED NATIONS — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel sought to shred the credibility of Iran’s new president on Tuesday, using his annual speech at the United Nations to cast the Iranian as a man who could not be trusted and to press the international community to keep up sanctions to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
In remarks interspersed with sarcasm about the new president, Hassan Rouhani, who visited the United Nations last week and said that Tehran wanted to reach a peaceful resolution of its protracted nuclear dispute, Mr. Netanyahu declared that Mr. Rouhani was no different from any other president of Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Clearly concerned that the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, had succeeded in portraying himself as a friendly and pragmatic leader during his visit to New York last week, Mr. Netanyahu focused the majority of his 33-minute address on Mr. Rouhani, all but ignoring the Palestinian issue. He described Mr. Rouhani as a beguiling figure who used reassuring words to mask malevolent intentions.
“They’ve all served that same unforgiving creed, that same unforgiving regime,” said Mr. Netanyahu, who regards Iran as Israel’s most potent enemy and its nuclear ambitions an “existential threat” despite Iran’s persistent denials that it seeks nuclear weapons. Mr. Netanyahu said that “President Rouhani, like the presidents who came before him, is a loyal servant of the regime.”  Only “tough sanctions and credible military threats,” Mr. Netanyahu said, will compel Mr. Rouhani to negotiate, though in an apparent nod to emerging diplomatic efforts, he sought to prescribe precise conditions for a deal, including that Iran stop enriching uranium.
Mr. Netanyahu dismissed any thought of allowing Iran to enrich uranium to even a low level, insisting that the only way to assure it would never build a nuclear weapon was a complete dismantlement of its capability to enrich nuclear fuel. He exhorted the West to intensify economic sanctions on Iran instead of easing them, as Mr. Rouhani has demanded. Iran has repeatedly said uranium enrichment is its legal right and that the country’s nuclear ambitions are peaceful.
“I wish I could believe Rouhani, but I don’t,” Mr. Netanyahu told the General Assembly, where Iran’s seats were vacant. “Because facts are stubborn things.” “I wish I could believe Rouhani, but I don’t,” Mr. Netanyahu told the General Assembly, where Iran’s seats were vacant in apparent response to Israel’s boycott of Mr. Rouhani’s speech a week earlier. “Because facts are stubborn things and the facts are that Iran’s savage record flatly contradicts Rouhani’s soothing rhetoric.”
Mr. Netanyahu said that nothing in Iran’s insistent entreaties for sanctions relief included concessions on its uranium enrichment capabilities. He likened Iran’s strategy to that of North Korea’s deceptive path to a nuclear weapon and suggested Iran’s behavior resembled that of the fascist dictatorships of history. The contrast in tone between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Rouhani was stark. Unlike the Iranian, who smiled during his address at the same podium and sought to appear conciliatory, the Israeli prime minister was low on smiles, high on sarcasm. Mr. Rouhani did not mention Israel by name, nor its prime minister; Mr. Netanyahu spoke the Iranian president’s name 25 times.
“The last century has taught us that when a radical regime with global ambitions gets awesome power, sooner or later its appetite for aggression knows no bounds,” he said.  Mr. Netanyahu compared a nuclear-armed Iran to 50 North Koreas. He suggested that Iran’s behavior resembled those of Europe’s fascist dictatorships of the 20th century. In seeking sanctions relief, Mr. Netanyahu said, Mr. Rouhani “thinks he can have his yellowcake and eat it too.”
Mr. Netanyahu said the international response to Iran’s entreaties for sanctions relief should be “distrust, dismantle and verify,” and he repeated his warnings that Israel reserved the right to preemptively strike Iran’s nuclear facilities if it deemed the Iranians were close to producing nuclear weapons. The assertions were at least partly aimed at his audience in Israel, where Mr. Netanyahu’s address was broadcast on prime-time television.
Khodadad Seifi, a deputy ambassador at Iran’s Mission to the United Nations, said afterward that his country had found Mr. Netanyahu’s speech inflammatory, rejected the notion that Iran was building a nuclear arsenal, and asserted its right to self-defense. Mr. Netanyahu  also said that the sanctions, which have deeply afflicted Iran’s economy, were precisely what had driven Iran to appear more flexible about making a deal. “That’s why Rouhani got elected in the first place,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “That’s why he launched his charm offensive.”
“The Israeli Prime Minister better not even think about attacking Iran let alone planning for that,” the Iranian ambassador said. He capped his remarks by saying that Iran’s “smile policy” was better than “lying.” Gary G. Sick, a former National Security Council staff member who specializes in Iran and who is now a research scholar at Columbia University, said he saw in Mr. Netanyahu’s speech a somewhat ineffective attempt to abort the momentum that Mr. Rouhani had sought to build.
Mr. Netanyahu spent almost the entire 33-minute address on the Iran nuclear issue, reflecting Israeli concern that Mr. Hassan had successfully made an impression of sincerity in his whirlwind of diplomacy at the United Nations. The Israeli leader reserved only a few minutes of his address to reiterate his desire to make peace with the Palestinians, but offered nothing new in his government’s longstanding positions.  “He was so anxious to make everything look as negative as possible he actually pushed the limits of credibility," he said, noting that it seemed incongruous after Mr. Rouhani’s diplomatic overtures and President Obama’s cautious responses. “It really is jarring to see that, the extreme element, and how far he was willing to push it. He did himself harm by his exaggerations.”
Gilad Erdan, Mr. Netanyahu’s communications minister, said in an interview afterward with Israel’s Channel 10 television that the speech had been meant to convey Mr. Netanyahu’s view that Mr. Rouhani had been seeking to deceive. “The world needs to understand that the niceness attack is an attack of lies that is aimed to achieve nothing but the removal of the sanctions, and if Israel shall find itself alone it will also act alone,” he said. Mr. Sick said he saw in the two men’s speeches not just a competition for influence in the region. “What we saw was Iran and Israel are now competing for U.S. attention, interest, involvement,” he said. 
Hours before Mr. Netanyahu spoke, Iranian diplomats sought to make a pre-emptive strike of their own, calling him a persistent liar and warning President Obama not to allow the Israelis to subvert the positive spirit cultivated by Mr. Rouhani in his visit to the United Nations. Mr. Netanyahu said the international response to Iran’s entreaties for sanctions relief should be “distrust, dismantle and verify,” and he repeated his warnings that Israel reserved the right to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities pre-emptively if it deemed the Iranians were close to producing nuclear weapons.
The remarks were delivered by Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and his spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, in Iranian state news media. They followed by a day a visit by Mr. Netanyahu with Mr. Obama at the White House, where both presented a public display of unity regarding Iran’s disputed nuclear energy program. He mentioned Mr. Obama only once, praising him for insisting that Iran take concrete steps to back up its words. But in contrast to the display of unity during Mr. Netanyahu’s meeting on Monday with Mr. Obama at the White House, the Israeli leader hinted at their differences.
“Over the past 22 years, the regime, Israel, has been saying Iran will have nuclear arms in six months,” Mr. Zarif said in an interview on state television. “The continuation of this game, in fact, is based on lying, deception, incitement and harassment.” “If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone,” Mr. Netanyahu said.
He added: “We have seen nothing from Netanyahu but lies and actions to deceive and scare, and international public opinion will not let these lies go unanswered.” Mr. Netanyahu, he said, “was the most isolated man at the U.N.” Iran swiftly issued a rejoinder. Khodadad Seifi, a deputy ambassador at Iran’s mission to the United Nations, said that his country had found Mr. Netanyahu’s speech inflammatory, rejected the notion that Iran was building a nuclear arsenal and asserted its right to self-defense.
Earlier on his Twitter account, Mr. Zarif alluded to the Obama-Netanyahu meeting on Monday in a message that read: “President Obama needs consistency to promote mutual confidence. Flip-flop destroys trust and undermines US credibility.” “The Israeli prime minister better not even think about attacking Iran, let alone planning for that,” the Iranian diplomat said. He added that Iran’s “smile policy” was better than “lying.”
And Mr. Zarif’s spokeswoman, Ms. Afkham, was quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying, “The pressure coming from the Zionist regime is down to its isolation and its anger that the policy of the Iranian government has been well received.” Mr. Netanyahu’s address, the last of the General Assembly’s opening session, served as a bookend to a conclave that has been dominated by the Iranian nuclear issue and Iran’s aggressive diplomatic outreach. Mr. Rouhani, over four days last week, blitzed New York with closed-door meetings, public addresses and television interviews, all the while seeking to convey his desire to resolve the nuclear standoff with the West swiftly.
The visit ended with a brief telephone call from Mr.President Obama, the first such communication by an Iranian and American leader in 34 years of estrangement.
Mr. Netanyahu declared that Mr. Rouhani was no different from any other president of Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“They’ve all served that same unforgiving creed, that same unforgiving regime,” he said.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s communications minister, said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 10 television that Mr. Netanyahu’s speech meant to convey the Israeli government’s blunt view. “The world needs to understand that the niceness attack is an attack of lies that is aimed to achieve nothing but the removal of the sanctions, and if Israel shall find itself alone it will also act alone,” he said.

Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Jodi Rudoren contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: October 1, 2013Correction: October 1, 2013

An earlier version of this article misidentified the Iranian diplomat who responded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address. He is is Khodadad Seifi, a deputy ambassador to the United Nations, not Mohammad Khazaee, the ambassador.

An earlier version of this article misidentified the Iranian diplomat who responded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address. He is is Khodadad Seifi, a deputy ambassador to the United Nations, not Mohammad Khazaee, the ambassador.