The US State Department sharply criticized an Israeli assessment that international powers are offering to roll back as much as 40% of the sanctions against Iran as part of ongoing nuclear talks, in another display of deepening tension between the U.S. and its key Mideast ally.
The U.S. and other powers are considering giving Iran what they describe as modest relief from punitive international sanctions in exchange for steps by Tehran to halt its nuclear program.
But Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said those steps directly or indirectly would ease the punitive sanctions by about $40 billion a year or around 40% of the overall impact.
State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, asked about the Israeli assessment, dismissed it Wednesday as “inaccurate, exaggerated and not based in reality.”
Ms. Psaki would not give a U.S. estimate for the impact of the sanctions relief being considered, but said it would be considerably less than the figure cited by Mr. Steinitz.
Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
{Matzav.com Newscenter}
Surprise, surprise. Obama on the side of Iran. Always was, just needed an excuse.
Firstly, Obama has long opposed an Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran. Israel has deferred to Obama’s preference in the hope that international sanctions might eventually force Iran to abandon its nuclear program. Those hopes now appear to have been dashed, with the Obama administration’s weak, even delusional leadership of negotiations in Geneva. Indeed, were it not for surprising French toughness, it is likely that Iran would have already been freed from serious sanctions, without any meaningful curtailment of its nuclear program. And in the end, it appears likely that French resistance or no, Obama and his other P5+1 partners (Russia, China, Great Britain, and Germany) are determined to let the Iranians off the hook.
In the current situation, Israel can no longer be sure that the Obama administration would have its back even if it declined to strike. Nothing in the administration’s current actions, statements, or past history suggest that this is the case. Obama dislikes Netanyahu. Obama’s best friend in the region is the vociferously anti-Israel prime minister of Turkey Recep Erdogan. He is a natural ally of the Palestinians, and at gut level, sympathetic to the Arab and Iranian points of view. Obama subordinates have repeatedly and recklessly leaked word of Israeli strikes on Syria, the only consequence of which has been to weaken Israeli deterrence and provoke conflict with Syria and by extension Iran. The administration’s Chamberlain-like cave on Iranian sanctions, taken in concert with Secretary of State Kerry’s pointless and self-aggrandizing “peace effort” with the Palestinians, will erode Israeli confidence of American support even in the event they show restraint.
You nailed it redstate. +1