The Obama administration has reduced “the exchange of sensitive information about the Iran talks” with the Israeli government over suspicion that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaked sensitive information about the ongoing nuclear negotiations to the Israeli press in an effort to sabotage the effort, the Washington Post reported on Sunday.
The decision comes amid a growing rift between the United States and Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
Netanyahu will also urge the United States against reaching a diplomatic deal with Iran during an address to Congress on the Iranian question on March 3rd, despite objection for the White House. Officials argue that the event undermines the American-Israeli relationship by eschewing diplomatic protocol and provides the prime minister with an international platform just two weeks before he stands for election.
According to Washington Post reporter David Ignatius, this latest crack in the U.S.- Israel relationship was formed from American suspicions that “Netanyahu’s office had given Israeli journalists sensitive details of the U.S. position” in the ongoing Iranian talks “including a U.S. offer to allow Iran to enrich uranium with 6,500 or more centrifuges as part of a final deal.” Israeli media also reported that the United States had “agreed to 80 percent of Iran’s demands.”
The administration contends, Ignatius reports, that “these reports were misleading because the centrifuge numbers are part of a package that includes the size of the Iranian nuclear stockpile and the type of centrifuges that are allowed to operate.” In other words, “[a] deal that allowed 500 advanced centrifuges and a large stockpile of enriched uranium might put Iran closer to making a bomb than one that permitted 10,000 older machines and a small stockpile,” Ignatius explains.
Israel did not directly deny making the leak, claiming instead that details of the talks had been publicly reported. “Just as Iran knows what kind of agreement is being offered, it’s only natural that Israel should know the details of the deal being formulated,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “But if there are those who think this is a good agreement, why must it be hidden?” he asked.
Media reports indicate that the Americans — along with negotiating partners Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France, plus Germany — would permit Iran to retain its nuclear infrastructure but significantly delay its ability to build a nuclear weapon by more than a year. The world powers are also pushing for a rigorous inspection regime to ensure Iran is not developing covert nuclear facilities and would in turn provide Iran with sanction relief and greater integration into the world community.
Netanyahu, meanwhile, sees Iran as a terrorist state no different from ISIS and claims that a negotiated agreement would still threaten Israel. “[Iran] would be able, under this deal, to break out to a nuclear weapon in a short time, and within a few years, to have the industrial capability to produce many nuclear bombs for the goal of our destruction,” Netanyahu told reporters last week. He has repeatedly condemned the negotiations, staking out a hardline position, despite pleas from Obama to refrain from criticizing the deal while it was still under negotiation.
Iran and its negotiating partners must agree to broad principles on limiting Iran’s nuclear capabilities no later than March 24nd and reach an agreement on the technical aspects of the deal by June 30th.