Defense Minister Ya’alon reverses previous stand as talks with Iran on its nuclear program resume in Vienna
With world powers convening in Vienna Tuesday for talks with Iran on its nuclear program, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said he had changed his mind and now leans toward supporting unilateral Israeli action against Iran.
“We had thought the ones who should lead the campaign against Iran is the United States,” said Ya’alon, speaking at Tel Aviv University. “But at some stage the United States entered into negotiations with them, and unhappily, when it comes to negotiating at a Persian bazaar, the Iranians were better.”
If Israel had hoped others would do the job for it, this is not about to happen, Ya’alon said: “Therefore, on this matter, we have to behave as though we have nobody to look out for us but ourselves.”
Haaretz, which reported on Ya’alon’s remarks, said “his words attest to a sea-change in his attitude regarding how Israel should contend with the Iranian nuclear program. Under the previous government, Ya’alon had led the opposition in the security cabinet to a solo Israeli attack on Iran, even exchanging sharp words on the issue with the defense minister at the time, Ehud Barak. Evidently he longer believes this is going to happen, and is nearing the position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who signals the belief that Israel should be behaving as though it’s on its own, right now.”
Ya’alon was sharply critical on Monday of Washington’s behavior regarding Iran, even hinting that US President Barack Obama would prefer to pass the hot potato to his successor. “People know that Iran cheats,” Ya’alon said. “But comfortable Westerners prefer to put off confrontation. If possible, to next year, or the next president. But in the end, it will blow up.”
Crimea crisis could hamper talks with Iran
Meanwhile, Russia, the US and other world powers will try to put their sharp differences over Ukraine to one side on Tuesday for their latest round of nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna.
It is the second in a planned series of meetings this year that aims to transform a November interim deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany into a lasting accord by July.
Such an agreement — seen as highly ambitious — would put an end to a decade-old standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme and silence for good what US President Barack Obama has called the “drums of war”.
So far, even with differences over Syria, the six powers have shown a united front over Iran, but events in Ukraine in recent weeks have precipitated the worst crisis in East-West relations since the Cold War.
Following Sunday’s referendum in Crimea — slammed as illegal by the White House and the European Union — Brussels and Washington on Monday slapped travel bans and asset freezes on top Russian and Ukrainian figures.
Already downbeat about prospects for a deal with Iran, Mark Fitzpatrick, a former US State Department official now at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the spat made him “even more pessimistic”.
“The Russians will … be less likely to make sacrifices for the sake of unity over the Iran issues,” Fitzpatrick told AFP. The Iranians, he said, “now have more reason to wait out the six powers”.
Even before the Ukraine crisis erupted, Russian President Vladimir Putin was reported to be discussing a major deal with Iran whereby Moscow would buy Iranian oil in exchange for money, goods and help in building new nuclear reactors.
This would undermine Washington’s efforts to cut off Iran’s main source of revenue — a strategy which the US credits with forcing Tehran to the negotiating table in the first place.
