Last week, this column discussed the “charm offensive” launched in the US by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani. As pointed out, anyone who just scratches the smiling front Rouhani presents will find beneath it a smart, ruthless, calculating, extreme Islamist cleric who has spent the last thirty five years faithfully serving the Ayatollah regimes in Iran and their obsessive quest for nuclear weapons.
So he hand-picked his trusted smiling minion, Rouhani, and marketed him (especially through social media) as a “moderate” and “reformer” compared to the other five scowling candidates.
Khamenei made sure to hide inconvenient fly-specs in Rouhani’s past, like the fact that he oversaw Iran’s nuclear weapons project for sixteen years (“he was just a negotiator”), or the fact that his son committed suicide in protest and disgust over his father’s blind obedience to the Supreme Leader (left an unambiguous suicide note). Few in Iran were surprised that Rouhani won by a landslide. In NY, war weary delegates at the UN, as well as star struck media personalities and politicians hung on to his every word.
"Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran's security and defense doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions," he said to a gullible world.
He said that he listened carefully to president Obama's speech, and hoped that the United States "will refrain from following the short-sighted interests of warmongering pressure groups" so that the two nations "can arrive at a framework to manage our differences."
Back in Iran Rouhani boasted that the Americans had literally begged his people five different times to arrange a handshake or short meeting with President Obama – and that he refused because “it would not have been appropriate”.
Only after lengthy negotiations between Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (and at what price?) did he reluctantly agree to accept a short phone call.
Much of the media and a few politicians fell right into the Iranian honey-pot trap. After all, he said in front of every camera that Iran is not building nuclear weapons. He’s the President of Iran and a devout cleric – surely he must be telling the truth. Just look at that smile...
And then Prime Minister Netanyahu arrived in the US…and the honey (hopefully) turned to vinegar.
With no cartoon gimmicks and no flashy presentations this time, Bibi gave a simple and laser-sharp message to President Obama, the UN General Assembly and as many TV cameras and radio microphones he could get in front of.
He said that he did not believe Iran's claims that its nuclear program was intended for research purposes; That Rouhani is a ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’; That only the Supreme leader decides regarding Iran’s nuclear program and that "The world mustn’t fall for the Iranian ploy and alleviate the sanctions as long as the Iranians do not dismantle their nuclear program."
Bibi made it clear that any lifting of sanctions as part of negotiations must come AFTER, not before:
- A total and verified cessation of all Uranium enrichment
- Dismantling the unfinished Heavy Water nuclear reactor at Arak (which could produce Plutonium)
- Removal from Iran of all enriched Uranium.
- Removal from Iran of enrichment equipment including centrifuges and conversion facilities.
Speaking to the Iranians directly on BBC’s Persian station, Netanyahu warned them that Israel was dead serious about using the military option if sanctions and real negotiations do not succeed, and in a short time.
In his meetings and interviews last week, Bibi made it clear that Israel can, and will, stop Iran from reaching nuclear break-out, even if it has to it alone.
Was Bibi more convincing than Rouhani? I hope so, because for the US, the Iranian nuclear issue is part of a multi-player global chess game. For Israel, it’s a question of national survival. And I mean that in the broadest Jewish perspective.
Agree or disagree, that’s my opinion.
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