Former Israeli envoy claims Iran was key factor in Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump

Former Israeli envoy claims Iran was key factor in Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump

Vered Weiss

Although many in the media speculated that the catalyst for  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s quick decision to fly from Hungary to the US was to discuss the tariff issue, the former Israeli ambassador to the US identifies the primary motivation for the trip was to discuss the Iranian threat.

Mike Herzog, a retired brigadier general and Middle East scholar who served as Israel’s ambassador to the US until January, told the Maariv newspaper that the meeting’s hurried timing was due to the Trump administration’s intention “to immediately begin negotiations with Iran and inform Israel of the development, to ensure the Israelis are in the loop and on the same page. ”

Although Israel was opposed to the nuclear deal formed during the Obama administration, Herzog explained, “Israel has never objected in principle to diplomatic engagement over Iran’s nuclear program.” Still, given past failures, it faces the current round of negotiations with “discomfort and great caution.”

Herzog articulated Israel’s main concerns, namely, that Iran will attempt to drag out negotiations for as long as possible, or that the US will make costly concessions to secure a deal and that these concessions can severely limit Israel’s ability to deal independently with the Iranian threat.

Although Netanyahu advocated for a nuclear agreement similar to Libya’s decision to scrap its nuclear program,  Herzog said he believed it was doubtful Iran would agree to such a scenario.

He added that Israel should encourage the US to broaden the scope of the negotiations to include the topic of missile systems, to determine the red lines for the discussion, and insist that the talks adhere to a timeline to prevent Iran from running out the clock.

The Trump Administration has set two months as a target time for the negotiations, which Herzog believes is too brief for negotiating a complex agreement.

On the issue of a military option should the nuclear agreement fail, Herzog emphasized the importance of Israel and the US deciding on whether they would act jointly,or independently.