Obama Deal Would Leave Iran With Nuke Capacity

Geneva offer to Iran is a ‘historic mistake’ -Stuart Winer

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described a reported Western offer to Iran — of “limited” sanctions relief in response to an Iranian agreement to start scaling back nuclear activities — as a “historic mistake.”

Netanyahu said, the proposals “on the table in Geneva” would “ease the pressure on Iran in return for ‘concessions’ that aren’t concessions at all.” He said Israel completely oppose[s] these proposals, which would leave Iran with a capacity to build nuclear weapons.

“I believe that adopting [these proposals] would be a mistake of historic proportions. They must be rejected outright,” he added.

Sanctions had brought Iran to the brink of economic collapse, and the P5+1 countries have the opportunity to force Iran to completely dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the prime minister said. “Anything less than that” would reduce the likelihood of a peaceful solution to the crisis, he said, and Israel would always reserve to protect itself against any threat.

Later, Netanyahu angrily called the offer being discussed in Geneva, the “deal of the century” for Iran.

“If the news that I am receiving of the impending proposal by the P5+1 is true, this is the deal of the century, for Iran. Because Iran is essentially giving nothing and it’s getting all the air taken out, the air begins to be taken out of the pressure cooker that it took years to build in the sanctions regime. What we’re having today is a situation that Iran is giving up, at best, a few days of enrichment time, but the whole international regime’s sanctions policy has the air taken out of it. That’s a big mistake, it will relieve all the pressure inside Iran, it is a historic mistake, a grievous historic error,” Netanyahu told a visiting delegation of members of the US Congress.
[Times of Israel]
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Iran state TV aired this simulated attack on Israel

Iranian TV Airs Animated Strike on Israel - Haviv Rettig Gur
   
Iranian state television aired a computer-animated video that showed an imagined Iranian missile strike on Israel, including IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, the Dimona nuclear installation in the Negev, the Azrieli Mall and Ben-Gurion International Airport.    
(Times of Israel)
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Wishful Thinking on Nuclear Deal - Ariel Ben Solomon

Michael Rubin, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, told the Jerusalem Post:

"First of all, let's not scapegoat Israel for a demand of zero enrichment. That is what four unanimous or near-unanimous Security Council resolutions demand of Iran."

"There's a lot of wishful thinking going on as diplomats and politicians substitute advocacy for analysis." It is clear that the regime is signaling "a change in
tactics, not policy. 
(Jerusalem Post)


Iran Offered Relief from Sanctions If It Freezes Uranium Enrichment
- Joby Warrick and William Booth

A deal that would give Iran limited relief from economic sanctions in exchange for a temporary freeze of some of its nuclear activities was near completion and Secretary of State John Kerry was preparing to fly to Geneva on for an announcement.
   
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he understood "the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva, as well they should be, because they got everything and paid nothing. Everything they wanted. They wanted relief of sanctions after years of a grueling sanctions regime. They got that. They are paying nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability....Israel is not obliged by this agreement, and Israel will do everything it needs to defend itself and the security of its people." 
(Washington Post)
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How to Test Iran's Strategy - Avner Golov
Sanctions against Iran must not be lifted until the implementation of the final agreement; removing them sooner could result in their collapse and the loss of the West's principal leverage against Iran before the end of the talks.
(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
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The Shape of an Iran Deal - David Ignatius
 
Israeli experts have insisted that Iran must show it doesn't have "breakout" capability by mothballing centrifuges (especially the newer, more efficient models) and by refraining from bringing online a planned heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak. Otherwise, say the Israelis, the Iranians could continue to creep closer to breakout capability under the cover of negotiations. 
(Washington Post)
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