Israel’s New Demands on Iran Fueling a Dispute With US

Rice Heads to Jerusalem to Hear More Condemnations of Talks

Israel has made no bones about its opposition to the interim P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, and is very public to this day about their opposition to any “bad deal” with Iran, which in essence they define as any deal at all.

The Obama Administration has tried to get around this by giving lip-service to Israel’s position while the talks continue, and downplaying the chances of a deal, but with every high profile US visit to Israel lately centering around Israel issuing demands, people are starting to get sick of hearing about it.

Israel’s demand is essentially for Iran to abandon its entire civilian nuclear program, a stance Western diplomats say is just plain unrealistic. That’s not accidental, though.

Israeli officials continue to say they will never agree to anything short of that and that they would “be happy to see July 20 pass without a deal.” The demands are by design so extreme they seem designed to do just that, kill the talks and ensure that no deal is possible.

Susan Rice is headed to Jerusalem this week, and the agenda is once again a solid two days of Israel harping on how much they oppose the Iran deal, which seems certain to end with even more annoyance.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.