While most assessments of Saturday’s discussions in Istanbul on the Iranian nuclear program were upbeat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a different take.
The talks between Iran and the P5+1–the five members of the U.N. Security Council (U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China), plus Germany—began Saturday. The next round of talks is scheduled for May 23 in Baghdad.
Most world leaders described the talks as a positive first step, but Netanyahu said Iran had been given a five-week “freebie” to continue its nuclear enrichment program at the Fordow facility in Qom.
“My initial impression is that Iran has been given a freebie … five weeks to continue enrichment without any limitation, any inhibition,” Netanyahu said before meeting with Sen. Joe Lieberman in Jerusalem on Sunday. “I think Iran should take immediate steps to stop all enrichment, take out all enrichment material, and dismantle the nuclear facility in Qom.”
President Obama, on a three-day trip to meet with Latin American leaders, quickly countered Netanyahu’s remarks.
“The notion that somehow we’ve given something away or a ‘freebie’ would indicate Iran has gotten something,” Obama told reporters in Cartagena, Columbia.
“In fact, they’ve got some of the toughest sanctions that they’re going to be facing coming up in just a few months if they don’t take advantage of these talks,” he said. “The clock is ticking.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 10 television aired a program Sunday evening detailing what an Israeli military strike on the Iranian nuclear facilities would look like, The Times of Israel reported.
Should the latest round of diplomatic talks fail, “years of preparations are likely to come to realization,” the reporter, Alon Ben-David, said. “The moment of truth is near.”
In the television program, which reportedly had been cleared by military censors, one pilot told Ben-David it would be naive not to assume that some Israelis would be killed in the mission. The IDF also believes an attack would bring war on Israel’s northern border.
According to the report, the scene is being set for Israel’s first all-out war in nearly 30 years.
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