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Kerry Seeks to Reassure Israel on Iran Criticism of United States’ Mideast Policy Increasingly Comes From Allies
(about 7 hours later)
ROME — Secretary of State John Kerry, facing new frictions with America’s most important Middle East allies over its policies in the region, sought to assure Israel on Wednesday that the United States would insist on strict constraints on Iran’s nuclear program in its newly reinvigorated negotiations with Tehran. ROME — As the United States grapples with some of the most intractable problems in the Middle East, it has run into a buzz saw of criticism, not from traditional enemies but from two of its strongest allies.
Before meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at the residence of the American ambassador here, Mr. Kerry said the Obama administration welcomed the change of tone by Iran but “words are no substitute for action.” During stops in Paris and London this week, Secretary of State John Kerry found himself insisting that the United States was not facing a growing rift with oil-rich Saudi Arabia, whose emissaries have described strains over American policy on Egypt, Iran and Syria.
Mr. Kerry is on the final leg of a three-day visit to European capitals focused on Middle East diplomacy, most notably American efforts to help start a peace conference on the Syrian conflict. But the trip has been punctuated by criticism directed at the United States from its main strategic allies, Saudi Arabia and Israel, and Mr. Kerry has been making an effort to assuage them both. And during a stop in Rome, Mr. Kerry sought to reassure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that the Obama administration would not drop its guard in the newly invigorated nuclear talks with Iran.
The Saudis, who are strong supporters of the Syrian insurgency, have been particularly upset over what they view as the Obama administration’s lack of resolve in acting against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, who is now in some ways stronger politically than he was a year ago. Last week the Saudis rejected taking a seat on the United Nations Security Council in part to express their displeasure. Mr. Kerry’s comments appeared to do little to persuade Mr. Netanyahu, whose demands that Iran dismantle its nuclear program seem to go well beyond any compromise that the United States and other world powers are prepared to explore as they seek to strike a deal with Iran’s new president.
They have also voiced alarm over the Obama administration’s steps toward rapprochement with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main rival in the Middle East, and are fearful that the United States could make compromises in negotiations for a deal over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. But the criticism by Saudi officials has been the most vehement, as they have waged a campaign against the United States’ policy in the Middle East in private comments to diplomats and reporters, as well as in public remarks by a former intelligence official.
The Israelis are even more alarmed at the possibility that the United States might be too pliant in trying to pursue a compromise with Iran. Mr. Netanyahu has called Iran’s nuclear program a guise for weapons development and the most serious security threat facing his country. Saudi officials have made it clear they are frustrated with the Obama administration — not just for its reluctance to do more to aid the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and not just for its willingness to engage Iran in negotiations, but also for its refusal to endorse the Egyptian military’s ouster of President Mohamed Morsi and the crackdown on Mr. Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party.
Mr. Kerry’s public statements before his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu were focused largely on reassuring the Israelis. In a speech Tuesday at the annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference held by the National Council on U.S. Arab Relations, Saudi Arabia’s former spy chief and ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, also complained about the White House’s decision to embrace an agreement to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons instead of carrying out a cruise missile strike against Mr. Assad’s forces.
“No deal is better than a bad deal,” Mr. Kerry said, a phrase that American officials have frequently used in recent weeks to try to reassure lawmakers in the United States as well as Israel and Persian Gulf states that the White House will not make risky concessions. “The current charade of international control over Bashar’s chemical arsenal would be funny if it were not so blatantly perfidious, and designed not only to give Mr. Obama an opportunity to back down but also to help Assad to butcher his people,” said Prince Turki, a member of the Saudi royal family and a former director of Saudi intelligence.
But Mr. Netanyahu listed a range of steps that Israel says Iran needs to take to demonstrate that it is not developing nuclear weapons, steps that appeared to go well beyond a compromise that the United States and other world powers are prepared to explore with Tehran, which insists its nuclear program is for civilian use only. The United States and other world powers are scheduled to resume talks with Iran in Geneva on Nov. 7. Some Middle East experts said that the unease over American policy went beyond the details of the United States’ position on Syria or a potential nuclear deal with Iran. It is also fueled, they say, by the perception that a bedrock principle of the Obama administration’s policy is the desire to avoid diplomatic and especially military confrontations in the Middle East.
Mr. Netanyahu, in a joint appearance with Mr. Kerry, said Iran must get rid of all of its fissile material and should not be allowed to have any centrifuges to enrich uranium. Iran should also close its underground nuclear facilities and abandon its construction of a heavy-water plant that would produce plutonium, Mr. Netanyahu added. “There is a lot of confusion and lack of clarity amongst U.S. allies in the Middle East regarding Washington’s true intentions and ultimate objectives,” said Robert M. Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who was a State Department official on Middle East issues during both Democratic and Republican administrations. “There is also widespread unease throughout the Middle East, shared by many U.S. allies, that the United States’ primary objectives when it comes to Iran, Egypt or Syria are to avoid serious confrontation.”
Having staked out broad demands on the Iranian nuclear program, Mr. Netanyahu argued that the international sanctions against Iran should not be eased in return for a “partial deal.” On his trip through Europe, Mr. Kerry repeatedly sought to counter the impression that the Obama administration was ducking tough challenges. In a news conference in London on Tuesday, he acknowledged that the Saudis were “disappointed” that the administration had pulled back from its threats to carry out a cruise missile attack against Syrian forces and seized instead on a Russian initiative to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons program.
The negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians were also a major subject on Mr. Kerry and Mr. Netanyahu’s agenda, though not one they were prepared to discuss publicly in detail. Mr. Kerry said he had discussed Saudi officials’ concerns with Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, in Paris on Monday, and insisted that the two countries were now “on the same page” on the need to convene a peace conference that would seek a political settlement to end the civil war in Syria.
Trying to convey the impression that there is momentum in those talks, Mr. Kerry said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators had met 13 times and “are meeting even now.” Martin S. Indyk, Mr. Kerry’s special envoy for those talks, is in Jerusalem to facilitate the discussions, the secretary of state emphasized. American and other Western officials say the elimination of Mr. Assad’s stockpiles of poison gas would be a major accomplishment.
Despite the multiple meetings, it is not apparent what, if any, headway has been made. When the talks began in July, Mr. Kerry said the goal was to complete a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement in nine months, and a third of that time has elapsed. On Iran, Saudi Arabia’s concerns that the United States might not be firm enough in nuclear negotiations appear to echo Israel’s. Mr. Kerry sought to assuage those worries as well.
Mr. Kerry has been trying to move the talks along; he met recently in London with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, and has had frequent conversations with Mr. Netanyahu. The Israeli leader told reporters on Wednesday that he and Mr. Kerry talk virtually every other day. And Mr. Kerry has set side the entire afternoon and evening for his discussions here with Mr. Netanyahu. “President Obama has said a number of times, and I reiterate today, no deal is better than a bad deal,” he said on Wednesday as he tried to reassure Mr. Netanyahu that the United States was taking a sober view of the possibility of a nuclear breakthrough with Iran.
On Monday in Paris, Mr. Kerry met with senior diplomats from the Arab League to maintain Arab support for the talks. “But if this can be solved satisfactorily, diplomatically, it is clearly better for everyone,” Mr. Kerry added before beginning a seven-hour meeting with the Israeli prime minister at the residence of the American ambassador here. “And we are looking for an opportunity to be able to do that.”
In an apparent effort to influence Israeli public opinion, Mr. Kerry noted on Monday that Prince Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia had endorsed the concept of Middle East peace, one in which Israel would have normal relations with all Arab and Muslim nations. Mr. Netanyahu said he welcomed those general sentiments, but went on to list a series of steps that he said Iran needed to take to assure the world that it was not pursuing nuclear weapons.
“That’s a vision, and it’s a vision worth fighting for,” Mr. Kerry said. He called on Iran to get rid of all its fissile material, close its underground nuclear facilities and abandon its construction of a heavy-water plant that would produce plutonium. He also said Iran should not be allowed to have any centrifuges to enrich uranium.
But Qatar’s foreign minister, Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah, suggested in a joint appearance with Mr. Kerry on Monday that the United States needed to put more pressure on Israel and play more of an active role in suggesting compromises. Mr. Attiyah said “actual” American participation in the negotiations was needed. Having set out these broad demands, Mr. Netanyahu argued that it would be a “tragic mistake” to end international sanctions against Iran in return for a “partial deal.”
“I would like to thank my friend John for the serious effort that is expended, but we would like him to be fully engaged in this process,” Mr. Attiyah said. Iran, by contrast, has insisted that the West acknowledge what it says is its right to enrich uranium as part of a negotiated compromise that would put limits on the nation’s nuclear program.
Iran has insisted that the West acknowledge its “right” to enrich uranium as part of a negotiated compromise that puts limits on its nuclear program, a step the United States has not publicly taken. American officials did not publicly acknowledge that “right” in talks with Iranian officials in Geneva last week, but it is clear that the United States and other world powers are willing to explore a deal that is far less stringent than the one Mr. Netanyahu proposed.
Specific limits on Iran’s program have yet to be agreed upon. Another major issue for the next round is how fast to ease economic sanctions that have battered the Iranian economy. The disagreements between the United States and Israel will not be easy to finesse. The United States and other world powers are scheduled to resume talks with Iran in Geneva on Nov. 7.
The Iranians have pushed for a quick easing of the sanctions. The White House has been weighing a move to ease the effect by offering Iran access to billions of dollars in frozen funds.
But the United States has signaled that it does not want to remove major sanctions until its top demands are met, a position Israel has been urging be strengthened.