Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that “troubling questions” are raised if reports are accurate that the White House is offering Arab states a “nuclear umbrella” to protect them from Iran.
The Jerusalem Post and Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hayat reported last week that Obama administration is ready to ease concerns over the Iranian nuclear threat by offering the Gulf States a “nuclear umbrella” — a declaration that any use of nuclear weapons against them would be considered use against the U.S. as is now policy for such major military allies as NATO, Japan and South Korea.
Mr. Netanyahu said in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation that he didn’t know whether the reports are accurate, but “if it’s true it raises two troubling questions.”
“The first is it means that Iran has a nuclear weapons program — otherwise, why offer, presumably the Gulf States, why offer them nuclear protection?” Mr. Netanyahu said. “The second is, if it’s true, it signals a shift in U.S. policy from preventing a nuclear Iran to containing one, and that’s not good.”
The “nuclear umbrella” reports add a new wrinkle to the U.S. negotiations with Iran designed to reduce its nuclear threat. The deal still being shaped is believed to include a 10-year freeze on sensitive nuclear activity, a cap on centrifuges and enriched uranium, and “intrusive” inspections of nuclear facilities.
Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida Democrat, said Sunday that the inspections were key to the negotiations, which are expected to wrap up March 24.
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“The key part of what you mentioned, if that’s true, is the intrusive and unannounced inspections,” Mr. Nelson said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The only way that you’re going to keep Iran, which you can’t trust any more than a rattlesnake, the only way you’re going to make sure that they are not developing a bomb is the intrusive and unexpected inspections.”
Mr. Netanyahu warned that Iran cannot be trusted to comply with such restrictions, saying, “I do not trust inspections with totalitarian regimes.”
“They’ve cheated and bamboozled inspectors,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Under the nose of inspectors, they built two underground bunkers that the inspectors didn’t know about and we the intelligent agencies of the U.S., Israel and Britain, didn’t know about for years. So I’d be a lot more circumspect.”
Mr. Netanyahu, speaking less than a week after his much-discussed speech before a joint session of Congress, urged the White House to pursue a “better deal,” including a demand that Iran halt its terrorist activity and stop threatening to annihilate Israel before entering into a deal on its nuclear capability.
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin Republican, echoed those concerns, saying, “There’s no peaceful nuclear program in Iran.”
“There’s no reason for them to enrich uranium other than for a weapon,” Mr. Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday.” “So President Obama in this instance, again, is just denying the reality of the situation. And that’s what Prime Minister Netanyahu basically pointed out with good clarity: ’Here’s who Iran is, they’re evil.’”
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Whether Congress will have a role in approving any agreement is unclear. A bill introduced by Sens. Paul Kirk, Illinois Republican, and Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat, would impose new sanctions on Iran and require the administration to bring any deal before Congress, but the president has said he will veto it.
President Obama said in an interview Saturday with CBS News that he would be willing to abandon negotiations with Iran if the agreement threatens U.S. security, saying, “If there’s no deal, then we walk away.”
“If we cannot verify that they are not going to obtain a nuclear weapon, that there’s a breakout period so that even if they cheated we would be able to have enough time to take action. If we don’t have that kind of deal, then we’re not going to take it,” Mr. Obama said.
Last week’s speech drew attention to the Iranian threat, but also to the rift between the White House and Mr. Netanyahu’s government. The prime minister said Sunday he meant no disrespect to Mr. Obama, but his speech was boycotted by an estimated 57 Democratic House and Senate members.
Democrats were in no mood Sunday to let bygones be bygones. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, called Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to air his concerns before Congress “a huge error in judgment for our number-one ally in that area.”
“I think we have to do a nuclear agreement to protect from a breakout, and I think that, you know, what Prime Minister Netanyahu did here was something that no ally of the United States would have done,” Ms. Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I find it humiliating, embarrassing and very arrogant because this agreement is not yet finished.”
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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