Obama: Iran's Recognition of Israel Not to Be Part of Nuclear Deal
VOA News
April 07, 2015 1:09 AM
President Barack Obama has rejected a call by Israel that any final nuclear agreement with Iran include a "clear and unambiguous Iranian commitment of Israel's right to exist."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued the demand Friday while strongly criticizing a framework nuclear deal reached by Iran and six world powers.
President Obama discussed the issue during an interview Monday with the American news media organization NPR. "The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognizing Israel is really akin to saying that we won't sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms. And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgment," Obama said. "We want Iran not to have nuclear weapons precisely because we can't bank on the nature of the regime changing. That's exactly why we don't want to have nuclear weapons. If suddenly Iran transformed itself to Germany or Sweden or France then there would be a different set of conversations about their nuclear infrastructure."
Israel insists the framework nuclear agreement reached last week in Switzerland threatens its survival and Netanyahu has said he would press U.S. lawmakers not to give Tehran "a free path to the bomb."
In appearances on U.S. television on Sunday, Netanyahu said he has discussed the issue with both Democrats and Republicans in Congress - nearly two thirds of House of Representatives members and a similar number in the U.S. Senate.
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