Israel isn't one of the six world powers negotiating with Iran for an agreement to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon, but on Monday, Yuval Steinitz, Israel's minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, nonetheless issued a list of requirements for a final deal deemed "more reasonable" to Tel Aviv.
The specific demands, the first issued by Israel, include that Iran end all nuclear research and development, ship all its enriched uranium out of the country, lower the number of centrifuges below the 6,104 (out of 19,000 currently) agreed to in the framework deal, disclose all previous nuclear research and activities, and shutter its underground Fordo facility, which under the current deal could be used for medical isotope production.
The Israeli demands, echoed by some Republican lawmakers, "would amount to a dramatic rewrite of the proposed accord," notes The Wall Street Journal. "Last week's framework leaves almost no room for negotiators on either side to overhaul the terms in the way Mr. Steinitz called for."
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As Steinitz, one of the Israeli government's most strident critics of the Iran talks, was laying out his case in Jerusalem, President Obama was waving off a demand made by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu last Friday, that any deal must include a "clear and unambiguous Iranian commitment of Israel's right to exist." That demand "is really akin to saying that we won't sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms," Obama told NPR's Steve Inskeep. "And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgment."
We want Iran not to have nuclear weapons precisely because we can't bank on the nature of the regime changing. That's exactly why we don't want to have nuclear weapons. If suddenly Iran transformed itself to Germany or Sweden or France then there would be a different set of conversations about their nuclear infrastructure. [Obama, to NPR]
Obama is also lobbying for support on the deal from Arab states with tense relationships with Iran, and he has invited the heads of several Sunni Gulf states to Camp David later this spring to discuss the issue. The ground seems more fertile than in Israel. On Monday, Saudi Arabia's U.S. ambassador, Adel al-Jubeir, said his kingdom wanted to see the details before endorsing the final agreement, but expressed "hope there will be a deal based on the principles that the U.S. government has articulated to us."
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