Netanyahu goes to the UN and warns the world: do not trust Iran
Il Giornale, September 30, 2013
A difficult trip to the UN for Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived in New York yesterday. His unpleasant task, faced with the sweet Farsi cadence of Iranian President Rouhani, is to tell the General Assembly of the UN what no one wants to hear: wake up; it is beautiful to dream of peace with Iran, but for now it is only words, and the centrifuges are spinning like crazy. Netanyahu is meeting Obama today and speaking to the Assembly tomorrow. The rapids his canoe is approaching are dangerous; Israel is risking isolation. We are at the end of the session. Many delegations have gone home, but Israel's Prime Minister will tell both the American President and an audience that is dreaming of peace, "The emperor has no clothes." There will be cleared throats, raised eyebrows and titters. Netanyahu will maintain that Rouhani's promise to open serious nuclear negotiations is a falsehood to gain time. He will say that the purpose is to lift the economic sanctions without changing the nuclear program. Bibi is thinking of a large and tricky Penelope's web. It is woven by day and unraveled by night. What chance does he have of proving it?
Obama has decided in favor of negotiating, but Netanyahu wants Israel wants to put its milestone against the trend. It would be easy to declare oneself satisfied and join the chorus led by the most valuable ally, the United States. There will be no lack, therefore, of conciliatory sounds, but the facts will rule: in the Prime Minister's cabinet a finicky and defenseless treatment has guided the drafting of a speech punctuated by "facts that cannot be disputed by anyone."
In order to believe the Ayatollah's regime, Netanyahu demands: discontinuing uranium enrichment, removing all enriched uranium, closing the Fordow underground power plant and dismantling the new Natanz centrifuges. They are reasonable conditions for a regime of fanatics who hate the West and have been promising the total destruction of Israel for years, up until a couple of days ago. The risk is that Obama will reply, "Okay, but they are asking me to lift some sanctions before negotiations and before verifying whether or not the enrichment is for civilian purposes. A scenario that excludes IAEA inspections. A year ago Bibi gave the famous "fighting line" speech at the UN. With a doodle of a Mickey Mouse-like bomb with a lit fuse and hot words, Netanyahu indicated the Iranian goal of 250 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium. We are already at 190, but the latest reports by the IAEA, the atomic energy agency, tell us that Teheran now has very fast new centrifuges that could complete the process within a few months. Netanyahu will probably explain this hidden risk at length, as well as the difficulty in verifying the underlying intentions of a country that sponsors terrorism around the globe.
In order to seem credible, Iran must dismantle its aid to Assad, and show signs of respect for dissidents, women and homosexuals. In short, it must change its skin; otherwise the risk is to provide the regime with more power for its nuclear pursuits. Perhaps in the long run Obama will oversee the boundaries indicated by Bibi. But what the initiative produces now is the dwindling of the military threat if the bomb were within reach. At this point, it would also be difficult for Israel to attack Rouhani even if he were hiding 250 kilos of enriched uranium under his clerical habit. But Netanyahu announced as he was leaving, "I will tell the truth," and he was not smiling.
This article originally appeared in slightly different form in Italian in Il Giornale; English copyright, The Gatestone Institute