Before Netanyahu speech, Obama and aides make case for Iran deal

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration opened an all-out effort to sell its nuclear diplomacy with Iran, with the president and several top aides laying out the case for a negotiated deal as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to mount an unprecedented challenge to the policy in an address to Congress today.

The administration’s offensive, in a series of speeches and interviews, marked the first part of an extraordinary debate in which a foreign official, Netanyahu, has in effect taken on the role of leader of the opposition on an issue - preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon - that President Barack Obama has declared to be a top national security priority.

Although the U.S. and Israeli governments agree on the goal, Netanyahu and Obama disagree profoundly on how best to achieve it.

In an interview on the eve of Netanyahu’s speech, Obama made his most detailed public comments to date on the terms he would accept, saying that Iran would have to agree to a deal lasting at least 10 years that would limit its nuclear efforts, provide for strict international inspections and reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium enough to guarantee that “at least a year” would be needed to generate enough fuel for a weapon.

Whether Iran’s government, which denies it seeks a nuclear weapon, will agree to the necessary inspections and other terms remains unclear, Obama told the Reuters news agency.

“But if they do agree to it, it would be far more effective in controlling their nuclear program than any military action we could take, any military action Israel could take and far more effective than sanctions will be,” the president said. There are “no other steps we can take that would give us such assurance that they don’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Reducing Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium to keep the country at least a year away from “breakout capacity” would ensure “that we can take military action to stop them” if it tried to develop a nuclear weapon, Obama said.

Netanyahu, opening his visit to Washington with a warm-up speech to the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel lobbying group, stated his disagreement in stark terms.

The talks between Iran and six world powers are headed for a “potential deal with Iran that could threaten the survival of Israel,” he said.