For Washington, this is as bad as it gets in the Middle East

[Oscar]

For Washington, this is as bad as it gets in the Middle East

[ http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/18 ... ddle-east/ ]

J.L. Granatstein, National Post | March 18, 2015 3:41 PM ET

American policy in the Middle East is in ruins. The re-election Tuesday of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel means that there will be no progress toward a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, for one thing, though few held many hopes for this. The Abbas government will now have few options before it, and another intifada is surely a possibility.

More important in the intermediate term, Netanyahu’s victory further emboldens the Congressional Republicans who invited the Israeli leader to speak to Congress and to damn U.S. President Barack Obama’s negotiations with Iran for a nuclear deal. The American-led P5+1 discussions with Tehran are said to be close to a conclusion, but the Republican majorities mean that no major relaxation or elimination of economic sanctions, a sine qua non for Iran, will get support from Congress. Indeed, some in the House and Senate want to impose even more severe sanctions, and 47 Republican senators have already signed a letter threatening to scuttle any nuclear agreement. Blocking the lifting of sanctions could do just that. Obama may be able to use his executive powers to seal a weak bargain, but any successor president could undo it. Some deal. Why would Iran commit to such an arrangement?

For their part, the Saudis continue to suggest that if Iran is permitted to keep any of its potential nuclear bomb-making capacity, they will be obliged to move in that direction as well. So might the Egyptians. Both nations are buying arms in huge quantities; the Saudis are expected to spend almost $10 billion in 2015, making the oil kingdom the largest purchaser of American arms.

This doesn’t seem to frighten Tehran very much, though the Saudi efforts to keep oil prices low and production down must be severely crippling its treasury. Nonetheless, Iran has seen its sway expand enormously in the region on Obama’s watch. Persian forces are fighting ISIS in Iraq — and quietly co-operating with the United States and its other allies (including Canada’s RCAF and special forces?) — in doing so. Iranian arms are flowing to Shia Iraqis, and Iranian senior officers and units are leading the battle against the Islamists. If and when ISIS is stopped, Iraq may well become an Iranian fiefdom.

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[ http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/18 ... ddle-east/ ]

[Oscar]

Obama says prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace are 'dim'

[ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32044016 ]

24 March 2015

US President Barack Obama says prospects for a two-state solution in the Middle East are "dim" after the Israeli prime minister vowed to oppose a Palestinian state.

Mr Netanyahu's statements angered the White House, even though he has since tried to soften his remark.

Tensions between the US and Israel have been growing as the leaders have wrangled over a number of issues.

But Mr Obama described his relationship with Mr Netanyahu as "businesslike."

"I've met with him more than any other world leader," the president said claiming their personal relationship was not a major factor in the dispute. "He is representing his country's interests the way he thinks he needs to, and I'm doing the same."

"So the issue is not a matter of relations between leaders; the issue is a very clear, substantive challenge," he said. "This can't be reduced to a matter of somehow let's all hold hands and sing 'Kumbaya'."

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli officials denied reports that Israel was spying on the US-led talks.

Mr Netanyahu has taken issue with the United States' role in the nuclear negotiations, which he claims would create security risks for Israel.

At the same time, Mr Obama has denounced his counterpart's pre-election statements rejecting creation of a Palestinian state.

Responding to reporters' questions on Tuesday during a news conference originally intended to brief the press on the situation in Afghanistan, President Obama refused to comment on the spy claims first reported in the Wall Street Journal. [ http://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-spie ... 1427164201 ]

He did, however, offer assurances that Israel and other regional partners have been briefed on the negotiation's progress

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[ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32044016 ]


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Israel Spied on Iran Nuclear Talks With U.S.

[ http://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-spie ... 1427164201 ]

Ally’s snooping upset White House because information was used to lobby Congress to try to sink a deal

By Adam Entous March 23, 2015 10:30 p.m. ET

Soon after the U.S. and other major powers entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks.

The spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal, current and former U.S. officials said. In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials said.

Soon after the U.S. entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks. Photo: Getty
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The espionage didn’t upset the White House as much as Israel’s sharing of inside information with U.S. lawmakers and others to drain support from a high-stakes deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program, current and former officials said.

“It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter.

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[ http://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-spie ... 1427164201 ]