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What Netanyahu Chose Not to Say in Speech Signals a Slight Shift

(New York Times) Peter Baker - In Prime Minister Netanyahu's high-profile address to Congress on Tuesday, rather than insist that Iran be left with no centrifuges and that it be barred from any enrichment of uranium, as he has in the past, he signaled that he could live with a modest capability, just not one as robust as Obama would permit. Netanyahu said that Iran should not be left with a "vast" body of nuclear equipment, without explaining what counts as vast. The prime minister's team privately suggested that meant that Israel would not object strenuously to letting Iran keep several hundred centrifuges, still significantly fewer than the U.S. would accept. "The prime minister showed both a pragmatic approach and, contrary to some claims, an alternative path to the very bad one that was proposed," said an Israeli official. Another senior Israeli official said that Netanyahu's proposal to link the removal of nuclear restrictions to Iran's behavior at the time of the agreement's expiration "is new" and would test the premise put forth by the world powers that Tehran would improve over time.
2015-03-05 00:00:00
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