Netanyahu Takes Aim At U.S. Diplomacy Again – By Melvin Goodman (Counterpunch) / June 23, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leading anti-American protagonist, is at it again. The Israelis, presumably at Netanyahu’s direction, are leaking sensitive information regarding secret talks between the United States and Iran. The talks are designed to curtail Tehran’s nuclear program, liberate three American prisoners; and end proxy attacks on U.S. forces in Syria. Netanyahu visited Israeli Aerospace Industries last week and stated that any understanding between the United States and Iran would be “unacceptable to us.”
Netanyahu is particularly incensed that, in return for Iran’s positive response, the United States would give Iran greater access to billions of its dollars that have been frozen. The indirect talks would not revive the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and various world powers, but it would help to stabilize U.S.-Iranian relations and ease regional tensions in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Israel, of course, is not interested in any of this.
Anti-Americanism in Israel is not a new development, although Netanyahu has been more stubborn than his predecessors in challenging U.S. administrations. In 2015, Netanyahu accepted an outrageous invitation from Republican legislators to address a joint session of Congress, an unacceptable interference in U.S. domestic politics that should have had consequences for Israel. At the time, the United States was having significant diplomatic and political success in orchestrating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal with Iran, along with Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany. Secretary of State John Kerry’s greatest success was the Iran nuclear deal, but Donald Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton, abrogated it in 2018.
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