‘Iran is getting everything, while giving up almost nothing’

Nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West have raised deep concerns in Jerusalem that the talks are merely an Iranian ploy to buy time and dupe the West, and will lead to no tangible results.

At the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was worried „by the fact that Iran actually believes it will realize its plan to become a nuclear threshold state with untouched capabilities to enrich uranium and develop intercontinental ballistic missiles, which it is continuing to do uninterrupted.”

„The combination of enrichment, weapons and launch capabilities means that Iran is getting everything without giving almost anything,” Netanyahu said. „A permanent agreement must not perpetuate this situation.”

„Iran must be rid of its produce or launch nuclear weapons. This has yet to be accomplished and without the insistence of world powers, it will not be accomplished. I hope that world powers will stand firm in the demand to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear threshold state.”

Credit: Benny Pleban

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman visited Israel over the weekend and attempted to address such concerns. In private meetings before speaking with the press on Saturday, Sherman updated Netanyahu’s representative, National Security Council head Yossi Cohen, and Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz on the talks with Iran. 

Sherman, the head of the U.S. delegation in the Iran nuclear negotiations, said on Saturday that she was in Israel to get input, ideas and points of view about the talks and what is critical is to ensure the security of Israel, the security of the United States and the security of the world.

Touching on Netanyahu’s demand that Iran must not be allowed to enrich uranium and that if it was permitted to do so it must be outside of Iran, Sherman told reporters: „I also want a lot of things in life, it doesn’t mean I get them.”

„I assume the discussions between Netanyahu and [U.S. President Barack Obama] will continue,” she added. „There are different viewpoints. It is important to understand, the differences are about the tactics, the path, not the result we seek to achieve. As to the result, that Iran will not be nuclear — there is no disagreement,” she said.

Regarding the situation on the ground, Sherman said: „There is only one measure of success of a comprehensive agreement with Iran and that is if an agreement means that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon and that the international community will have assurance in the exclusively peaceful nature of a nuclear program in Iran. That is our objective; we have begun very tough negotiations that will go on through July. We hope to get to a successful end and to a comprehensive agreement at that time. We have set a framework and a timetable for the negotiations but this is a very complex negotiation and I very much look forward to the talks that I will have here in Israel.”

Sherman will be also travel Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai for consultations with the governments of those countries as well as with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Sherman also addressed comments last week by Obama’s former adviser on Iran’s nuclear program, Gary Samore, who told Bloomberg that the nuclear talks had „an almost zero chance of success.”

Sherman said, „The point I took from the article is, are there enough incentives and deterrence tools on the table in order to reach a deal?”