For the first time since taking office, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is
slated to visit the United States without meeting US President Barack Obama. The
lack of a meeting later this month comes in the midst of roiling tensions
between Jerusalem and Washington over setting red lines for Iran’s nuclear
program.
Some have seen the absence of a face-to-face conversation as a
further sign of strain in the relationship.
A White House official said
he did not have a final schedule for the president for that week. His response
left open the possibility that a lastminute meeting could be added to the
agenda.
A request from Netanyahu’s office to meet with Obama in
Washington as part of the prime minister’s trip to the United Nations in New
York later this month was rejected for scheduling reasons, an Israeli official
said Tuesday.
Netanyahu, however, is expected to meet with other senior
US officials in New York, including Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton.
When asked about the White House’s refusal to schedule a meeting
between Netanyahu and Obama, an official there noted that the two leaders would
be visiting New York at different times.
News that the two might not meet
came after tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over Iran burst into the
open on Tuesday when Netanyahu attacked the US’s policy on Tehran at a joint
press conference in Jerusalem with visiting Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko
Metodiev Borisov.
Netanyahu said that those who do not place “red lines”
in front of Iran have no moral right to put a “red light” in front of Israel
when it comes to military action.
Netanyahu’s words came in the wake of
statements by Clinton on Sunday, and State Department spokeswoman Victoria
Nuland on Monday, that the US had no intention of putting either red lines or
deadlines in front of the Iranians.
Clinton said that the US was not
setting deadlines, and Nuland expanded that by saying that it was “not useful”
to be “setting deadlines one way or the other, red lines.”
Netanyahu, at
the press conference with Borisov on Tuesday said that diplomacy and sanctions, which have hurt the Iranian economy,
have not stopped the Iranian nuclear program.
“The fact is that every day
that passes, Iran gets closer and closer to nuclear bombs,” he said. “If Iran
knows that there are no red lines, if Iran knows that there are no deadlines,
what will it do? Exactly what it is doing.
It is continuing without
interference toward obtaining nuclear weapons capabilities and from there
nuclear bombs.”
The world, Netanyahu said, tells Israel to wait and that
there is still time.
“And I say wait for what? Wait until when? "Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”
Iran must
understand that there are red lines so it stops its nuclear program, he
added.
While government officials have spoken anonymously in recent days
and weeks of a frustration with US policy on Iran, these were the toughest
public comments yet by the prime minister on the matter.
Since the
beginning of the month, Netanyahu has repeatedly said that red lines needed to
be established and that this was possibly one way to avoid the need for other
action.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday night that his
country had the right to act independently.
“Israel reserves the right
and the responsibility to make decisions, as necessary, with respect to its
security and future, and the US respects this,” he said.
“Despite the
common purpose [between the two countries], there are certain differences
between Israel and the US with regard to certain positions. But these are best
dealt with behind closed doors.”
He added these differences should not
detract from America’s role as Israel’s primary ally and friend in the
international arena.
“Do not forget that the US is Israel’s main ally. We
have intimate relationships in the intelligence field, and the US is Israel’s
most important supporter in the security field,” Barak said. “The foundation of
this relationship is a long-standing friendship and shared values between Israel
and the American people.
In spite of the differences, and the importance
of maintaining Israel’s right to act independently, we have to remember the
importance of our partnership with the US. We should do everything possible not
to harm it.”
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that his
country was operating under a different timetable when it came to Iran. The US
has more than a year to stop Iran should it decide to make a nuclear weapon, he
said.
“It’s roughly about a year right now, a little more than a year,”
the Pentagon official said on CBS’s This Morning program. He also provided
assurance that the US could stop Iran.
“We think we will have the
opportunity once we know that they’ve made that decision, [to] take the action
necessary to stop [Iran],” he said, adding that the US had “pretty good
intelligence” on Iran.
“We know generally what they’re up to. And so we
keep a close track on them,” he said.
Furthermore, Panetta assessed that
the US had the ability to keep Iran from constructing a nuclear
weapon.
“We have the forces in place to be able to not only defend
ourselves, but to do what we have to do to try to stop them from developing
nuclear weapons,” he said.
Opposition leader Shaul Mofaz on Tuesday said
he does not expect that Israel will take military action against Iran this year.
Instead of making a decision on Iran, the opposition leader said, Netanyahu is
busy subverting Obama.
Mofaz went on to accuse Netanyahu of meddling in
the upcoming US presidential elections, which he described as “irresponsible
behavior and an error that harms the fabric of relations with [Israel’s] biggest
ally.”
Jerusalem’s relationship with Washington need not be sacrificed to
eliminate the Iranian nuclear program, he added.
As recently as Sunday,
during an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Netanyahu said
the US and Israel were discussing red lines for Iran.
Netanyahu will be
traveling to New York to address the Iranian issue at the UN General Assembly.
He is scheduled to arrive in New York on Thursday morning, September 27, and fly
back to Israel after Shabbat on September 30.
Since Obama is not
scheduled to be in New York during this period the Prime Minister’s Office
informed the White House that he would be willing to come to Washington for a
meeting.
Diplomatic sources confirmed last night that there will most
likely not be a meeting with Obama.
According to the sources, the White
House said this was the result of scheduling problems. Obama’s schedule is full,
with campaign events around the country in the run-up to the November 6
election.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said that Obama was not
holding any bilateral meetings with foreign heads of state during his visit to
New York on September 25 through 26.
Hilary Leila Krieger and Gil Hoffman contributed to this
report.