Pro-Israel lobby backs group to fight Iranian nuclear deal

Concerns that Saudi Arabia has communicated privately to the United States have been enough to prompt US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to announce a trip to Riyadh designed to allay the House of Saud’s fears and avert any military escalation.

Critics of the deal could marshal support if the final text of an agreement shows the United States and its negotiating partners had agreed to lift a U.N. embargo on conventional weapons trade – as Iran has insisted and Russian Federation has publicly supported.

So when the deal was signed, it put him in a tough place, and as he harps on about the calamity of it all, opposition figures are warning Netanyahu is facing worldwide isolation, and that he has flat out failed in his protracted effort to kill the deal. It could also lead to an arms race with Arab states unfriendly to Israel, he said.

He said that by easing sanctions and giving Iran hundreds of billions of dollars in relief in the coming years, Iran would foment “more terrorism” through its proxies in the Middle East and beyond.

I think this is one of those circumstances where we have all been rhetorical from time to time.

“It will be in several more months, certainly, after the (Iran) deal is approved and studied”.

The accord requires Iran to dismantle key elements of its nuclear program, lower its uranium enrichment levels and give up thousands of centrifuges. But it will keep small amounts of each, and Iran is still a sovereign country.

Then there were the times Ben Rhodes, a top Obama national security advisor, told various media outlets that “anytime, anywhere” inspections of Iranian sites where nuke work might be underway were an essential part of any pact. The deal could also open new economic horizons, with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius saying there were interesting commercial opportunities to be had.

Carter, who will also visit Jordan, will be renewing U.S. security commitments in the region, some of which serve as a buffer to Iran’s “destabilizing behavior”, a senior Pentagon official said Friday.

Speaking later to Israeli Channel 2 TV, he said that while he didn’t expect Iran to change overnight, over time and with growing engagement, it could become more moderate.

Netanyahu told Hammond Thursday that assessment was wrong.

“The deal agreed to in Vienna, I regret to say, paves this terrorist regime’s path to the bomb”, he said.

“That’s the kind of deal that would be welcomed in Tel Aviv and here in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem”, he added, pointing out Hammond’s reluctance to acknowledge Jerusalem as the Israeli capital when speaking to parliament.

THE fate of the historic nuclear agreement with Iran that was concluded last week could lie in the hands of a senator for New York who is torn between his love of Israel and his loyalty to a Democratic president.

“Israelis know better than anyone else the cost of permanent conflict with Iran and it is wrong to suggest that Israel wants such an outcome”, he said.