Israeli PM Skeptical of Rouhani’s Overtures at UN

“I will represent the citizens of Israel, our national interests, our rights as a people, our determination to defend ourselves and our hope for peace,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Saturday evening, while boarding his flight from Jerusalem en route to the US to meet with President Barack Obama on Monday and to address the United Nations General Assembly. “I will tell the truth in the face of the sweet talk and the onslaught of smiles. One must talk facts and one must tell the truth. Telling the truth today is vital for the security and peace of the world and, of course, it is vital for the security of the State of Israel.”

Already last Tuesday, following Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech at the UN, Netanyahu warned that Iran’s policy was to “talk and buy time in order to promote the ability of Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.”

“Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran’s security and defense doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had claimed in his UN address.

Before Rouhani’s departure from the U.S. on Friday, he and Obama engaged in an historic, 15-minute phone conversation. It was the first high-level discussion between the U.S. and Iranian presidents since 1979, following the Iranian Revolution.

“While there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward and success is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive solution,” Obama said at a press conference at the White House on Friday.

According to Netanyahu, Rouhani speaks about human rights while Iran joins in the massacre of innocent civilians in Syria and “carries out terrorism in dozens of countries around the world.”

Netanyahu, for the time being, has instructed his ministers not to comment on the Obama-Rouhani relationship.

Avigdor Lieberman, former chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and leader of the Yisrael Beytenu party (which is partnered with Likud), called Rouhani’s gesture an “appeasement attack” and a “trick to buy time.”

“With different tactics of playing for time and providing false information to the international community time after time, they have continued to advance toward the goal that they [Iranians] have set for themselves: obtaining a nuclear weapon meant to threaten the peace of the world,” Lieberman asserted.

Rouhani’s overtures were “just another deceptive trick,” such as those employed by North Korea to develop a nuclear weapon in the face of international scrutiny, he stated.

Author: Atara Beck, staff writer for United with Israel
Date: Sept 29, 2013

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