Skepticism of Iranian intentions – a crucial variable in evaluating the degree to which the U.S. should be willing to offer concessions to the Islamic republic during upcoming talks over Tehran’s nuclear program – has been aired with various intensity in recent days by American, Arab, and Israeli leaders. Media accounts have in particular oriented on Israeli statements, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is either unable or unwilling to make robust concessions. Iranian Foreign minister Javad Zarif has accused Israel of seeking to sabotage upcoming talks.
Asked about the accusation, Secretary of State Chuck Hagel flatly dimissed the suggestion Netanyahu was “intentionally trying to derail negotiations” by expressing skepticism. Israel’s long-emphasized insistence that it is ready to act militarily against Iran’s nuclear program, in fact, has had exactly the opposite effect of undermining talks:
“I think Prime Minister Netanyahu is legitimately concerned, as any prime minister of Israel has been, about the future security needs of their country,” Hagel said. Netanyahu, he continued, “has got a history of being very clear on where he is on this.”
Hagel… argued that Netanyahu’s threats of military action against Iranian nuclear sites, combined with the pressure of sanctions, may have actually encouraged Iran to take negotiations seriously.
“It’s true that sanctions — not just U.S. sanctions but UN sanctions, multilateral sanctions — have done tremendous economic damage,” Hagel said. “Even many of Iran’s leaders have acknowledged that. And I think that Iran is responding to the constant pressure from Israel, knowing that Israel believes them to be an existential threat. I think all of this, combined, probably brought the Iranians to where we are today. Whether the Iranians will carry forth on that, we’ll see.”
President Barack Obama has also consistently reiterated that diplomatic initiatives must be coupled with a credible threat of force in order to compel Iran to negotiate over its program. But Washington Institute executive director Robert Satloff took particular note of how Hagel had phrased his statements:
Interesting that Hagel said Israel’s credible threat, not America’s, helped bring Iran 2 the table. @JeffreyGoldberg http://t.co/ke731CBDFY
— Robert Satloff (@robsatloff) November 4, 2013
[Photo: U.S. Department of Defense / Flickr]