In an interview today with CNN, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused the White House of misleading the public with comments about the nuclear deal, particularly the repeated use of the term “dismantling” in public comments.
Zarif noted the term “dismantling” doesn’t appear even once in the P5+1 deal, and that while the interim deal has them stopping some enrichment activity, it does not oblige them to dismantle anything at all.
“The White House version both underplays the concessions and overplays Iranian commitments,” Zarif added.
The comments may be deliberate, as Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted he will accept nothing less than the full dismantling of Iran’s entire civilian nuclear program, and President Obama may be trying to paint the deal, incorrectly, as roughly what Israel wants.
Israel, by contrast, was only pushing for full dismantling because it knew Iran wouldn’t agree, and that could be a pretext for a war. Israeli lobbies have repeatedly tried to undermine the deal, urging the US Senate to violate the deal so the talks would collapse.
