The Israeli prime minister’s plan to persuade Congress to slap the Islamic Republic of Iran with further sanctions is aimed at subverting US-led negotiations with Iran over its uranium enrichment programme. Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress on the issue in early March, which has set President Barack Obama fuming, according to White House insiders. One unnamed official apparently warned that Netanyahu “will pay a price” for this departure in protocol.
Obama has declined to meet with the Israeli leader during his visit, which is understandable. What leader would welcome the prime minister of a foreign country arriving on his own soil to scupper a mainstay of his foreign policy? The official reason given—or, rather the thin pretext, is the US doesn’t want to be seen influencing Israel’s upcoming legislative elections.
The New York Times has accused Boehner of launching “a hostile attempt to lobby Congress to enact more sanctions against Iran, a measure that Obama has rightly threatened to veto,” and warns the “event is bound to further harm a bilateral relationship that has endured a lot of battering over the past six years.”
In truth, relations between the US and Israel are as solid as ever because they are based on common interests and can’t be seriously eroded whoever America’s commander-in-chief happens to be at any given time. Israel is indisputably the US’ regional proxy and that’s not going to change. It’s more precise to say that Netanyahu’s personal relationship with Obama has been fraught almost from the get-go and is now tenuous. But the wily Israeli leader is well aware that Obama’s second term is set to expire in January 2017 and, until then, he’ll ride the storm.
Petulance from Obama’s camp is unlikely to sway Netanyahu’s resolve; not only is he supremely thick-skinned (anyone who doesn’t turn a hair at killing thousands of innocent residents of Gaza while ignoring the international community’s outrage must have skin like a rhinoceros), he views Iran as an existential threat to his country that deserves censure, not diplomatic coddling.
His goal is further strengthened by the knowledge that the majority of Republicans in Congress are in sympathy with his anti-Iranian stance and there is little love lost between the president and the majority of congressional Republicans. On Sunday, several Republican senators pledged to pursue additional sanctions against Iran, among them Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ron Johnson, Senator Robert Menendez and Senator Lindsey Graham, despite warnings from Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron to the effect they would split the international community and could provoke yet another US military engagement in the Middle East.
Israel is far from being the only country that’s highly suspicious of the P5+1 talks with Iran. Arab leaders aren’t as outspoken as Netanyahu on the topic but certainly Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are wary of what’s being cooked-up behind closed doors—and in the event of full diplomatic relations being established between Iran and the West, they fear the expansion of Iran’s influence throughout the region. This is in light of the fact that Tehran currently has de facto control or heavy sway over four Arab capitals—Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana’a.
According to a 2014 Zogby poll, Arabs generally view Iran’s regional role as negative. When asked whether Iran “contributes to peace and stability in the region,” between 74 percent to 88 percent of Jordanians, Egyptians, Saudis and Emiratis expressed a contrary opinion.
Indeed, Arabs have legitimate cause for concern that the nuclear talks are little more than a red herring at a time when US foreign policy is pivoting eastwards. What does Obama have up his sleeve for the region is an unspoken question? Yes, he deprived Syria of its chemical weapons stocks but did nothing to quell the killing. Restricting Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities will neither put its nuclear genii back in the bottle nor halt its use of proxies to serve its ideological and territorial ambitions.
That’s not to say that procuring good relations between Iran and the West and Iran and the Arab world isn’t a worthy cause. But that should be pursued with the participation of all concerned parties in the neighbourhood. The sad fact is that Obama has reneged on so many promises made early in his presidency that he’s no longer a trusted broker. His fault or otherwise, the region is in a bigger mess on his watch than ever before and faces greater threats than at any time in recent history. Moreover, he’s widely seen as being soft on terrorism and soft on Iran.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some Arab heads of state secretly hope that Netanyahu’s appeal to members of Congress will bear fruit. The gap between Israel and GCC member states may be cavernous but on thwarting Iranian expansion, they’re uncomfortably on the same page.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.
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Can Netanyahu avert US-Iran detente?
Posted on January 28, 2015 by Linda S. Heard
The Israeli prime minister’s plan to persuade Congress to slap the Islamic Republic of Iran with further sanctions is aimed at subverting US-led negotiations with Iran over its uranium enrichment programme. Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited by House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress on the issue in early March, which has set President Barack Obama fuming, according to White House insiders. One unnamed official apparently warned that Netanyahu “will pay a price” for this departure in protocol.
Obama has declined to meet with the Israeli leader during his visit, which is understandable. What leader would welcome the prime minister of a foreign country arriving on his own soil to scupper a mainstay of his foreign policy? The official reason given—or, rather the thin pretext, is the US doesn’t want to be seen influencing Israel’s upcoming legislative elections.
The New York Times has accused Boehner of launching “a hostile attempt to lobby Congress to enact more sanctions against Iran, a measure that Obama has rightly threatened to veto,” and warns the “event is bound to further harm a bilateral relationship that has endured a lot of battering over the past six years.”
In truth, relations between the US and Israel are as solid as ever because they are based on common interests and can’t be seriously eroded whoever America’s commander-in-chief happens to be at any given time. Israel is indisputably the US’ regional proxy and that’s not going to change. It’s more precise to say that Netanyahu’s personal relationship with Obama has been fraught almost from the get-go and is now tenuous. But the wily Israeli leader is well aware that Obama’s second term is set to expire in January 2017 and, until then, he’ll ride the storm.
Petulance from Obama’s camp is unlikely to sway Netanyahu’s resolve; not only is he supremely thick-skinned (anyone who doesn’t turn a hair at killing thousands of innocent residents of Gaza while ignoring the international community’s outrage must have skin like a rhinoceros), he views Iran as an existential threat to his country that deserves censure, not diplomatic coddling.
His goal is further strengthened by the knowledge that the majority of Republicans in Congress are in sympathy with his anti-Iranian stance and there is little love lost between the president and the majority of congressional Republicans. On Sunday, several Republican senators pledged to pursue additional sanctions against Iran, among them Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ron Johnson, Senator Robert Menendez and Senator Lindsey Graham, despite warnings from Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron to the effect they would split the international community and could provoke yet another US military engagement in the Middle East.
Israel is far from being the only country that’s highly suspicious of the P5+1 talks with Iran. Arab leaders aren’t as outspoken as Netanyahu on the topic but certainly Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are wary of what’s being cooked-up behind closed doors—and in the event of full diplomatic relations being established between Iran and the West, they fear the expansion of Iran’s influence throughout the region. This is in light of the fact that Tehran currently has de facto control or heavy sway over four Arab capitals—Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad and Sana’a.
According to a 2014 Zogby poll, Arabs generally view Iran’s regional role as negative. When asked whether Iran “contributes to peace and stability in the region,” between 74 percent to 88 percent of Jordanians, Egyptians, Saudis and Emiratis expressed a contrary opinion.
Indeed, Arabs have legitimate cause for concern that the nuclear talks are little more than a red herring at a time when US foreign policy is pivoting eastwards. What does Obama have up his sleeve for the region is an unspoken question? Yes, he deprived Syria of its chemical weapons stocks but did nothing to quell the killing. Restricting Iran’s uranium enrichment capabilities will neither put its nuclear genii back in the bottle nor halt its use of proxies to serve its ideological and territorial ambitions.
That’s not to say that procuring good relations between Iran and the West and Iran and the Arab world isn’t a worthy cause. But that should be pursued with the participation of all concerned parties in the neighbourhood. The sad fact is that Obama has reneged on so many promises made early in his presidency that he’s no longer a trusted broker. His fault or otherwise, the region is in a bigger mess on his watch than ever before and faces greater threats than at any time in recent history. Moreover, he’s widely seen as being soft on terrorism and soft on Iran.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some Arab heads of state secretly hope that Netanyahu’s appeal to members of Congress will bear fruit. The gap between Israel and GCC member states may be cavernous but on thwarting Iranian expansion, they’re uncomfortably on the same page.
Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.