Kerry to visit Israel on Friday to discuss Iran deal: Netanyahu

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Kerry to visit Israel on Friday to discuss Iran deal: Netanyahu

JERUSALEM Sun Nov 17, 2013 4:28am EST

(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Israel on Friday to discuss a proposed deal between world powers and Iran on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Netanyahu has condemned a proposal, endorsed by Washington, to reduce sanctions on Iran if Tehran suspends parts of its nuclear work.

Netanyahu said he would discuss the issue with French President Francois Hollande, who arrives in Israel later on Sunday, and with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday.

"We will discuss (Iran) at the head of the many issues on the agenda," Netanyahu said of Hollande's visit in public remarks at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting. "I will do the same with President Putin in my visit to Moscow on Wednesday and I will do the same with John Kerry, who is coming here on Friday."

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/17/us-israel-us-kerry-idUSBRE9AG03920131117

[oberliner]

1. I'm sure that will go well

Sarcasm icon.

[bemildred]

2. Yes, both amusing an painful.

Every silver lining has a black cloud around it.

[oberliner]

3. Wish Livni was PM

Still frustrated that, in spite of getting the most votes, she was unable to put together a coalition (two elections ago).

For whatever her faults may be, she'd be much more amenable to working something out here than Netanyahu - with whom there is less than zero chance.

[bemildred]

4. Well, someone else, for sure.

This is a road to nowhere Bibi is on. The Middle East is fractured mess, on the brink of a larger war, and the first order of business is to settle things down.

Edit: and the Saudis and Gulf Sheikdoms a very weak reed to lean on.

[Scootaloo]

8. I think Israel could do better than Zipper

She's not as extremist as Netanyahu, but she's no better for peace. He provocates, she stalls. End result is largely the same.

[oberliner]

9. But she did actually win the popular vote

No one was even close to her and Netanyahu (Third place was Avigdor Lieberman with about half the votes Livni got).

[Scootaloo]

10. well, then maybe I'm wrong about Israel being able to do better n/t

[azurnoir]

11. wasn't that in 2009? the most recent Israeli election was in 2013

and Livni well it was sort of like Tzipi who?

[Jefferson23]

5. One of the meddlers:

France clueless on Iran
By Pepe Escobar

Here is definitive proof - if any was needed - that the Gallic fit-throwing that burned the possibility of an interim Iranian nuclear deal last week in Geneva was completely pointless.

The key "concern" expressed by Israel-firster French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to derail an interim deal was about the Arak heavy-water reactor.

Well, UN inspectors this week reported that they had detected no new developments in Arak over the three months since August. [1]

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, was also in Tehran on Monday, and - unusually for his trademark paperboy role for Washington - had nothing to complain about.

Fabius used the Arak gambit at the last minute in Geneva to derail the talks, provoking the ire of even fellow European diplomats. That was out of pure disinformation; Tehran was already doing what Fabius insisted they were not doing.

A EU diplomat (non-French) confirmed to Asia Times Online that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had already informed US Secretary of State John Kerry about these euphemistically defined "confidence-building measures". Kerry was fully aware before he landed in Geneva on his way to sign an interim deal.

But guess what: the French were clueless. Kerry did not tell anybody else on the P5+1 table (comprising the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany) because he feared any leaks. This proves once again that this infinitely complex negotiation is really between Washington and Tehran. Russia and China are behaving - so far - as sort of quiet (and wary) observers. Yet Kerry, Francophile that he is, should have know better about Gallic peacock instincts.

Fabius - acting on orders of "popular" (26% and sinking) President Francois Hollande - started to pre-emptively torpedo the negotiations even before Kerry landed in Geneva. Arak was the perfect pretext to shade France's true agenda; to act as an agent of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and to secure future fat contracts from those paragons of democracy, the Wahhabi-dominated Gulf Counter-revolution Club, aka the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

So Fabius was not only totally clueless about privileged Kerry-Zarif information; he felt like a spurned lover (Moliere to the rescue).

Make no mistake. Kerry - following President Barack Obama's brief - badly wants a deal. But as this is a P5+1 affair, he simply cannot out the French as spoilers. Thus the subsequent tactic earlier this week of "blaming" Iran - as in "they were not ready for a deal yet".

Assorted European diplomats have been spinning, off the record, that yes, there was a nearly done deal, but the Iranian delegation still had to go back to Tehran to get ultimate approval from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. That's exactly the line that Kerry followed during the week.

in full: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-151113.html

[oberliner]

6. Pepe Escobar toning down the anti-Obama rhetoric to bash the French

Interesting development!

[Jefferson23]

7. Interesting that you imagine a journalist should be loyal to any one person and or

government.