Hours before departing for U.S., Netanyahu instructs Israeli officials not to publicl

[Shah-i-Kot]

Hours before departing for U.S., Netanyahu instructs Israeli officials not to publicly discuss Iran

Prime Minister wishes to avoid gaffes criticizing Obama or U.S. foreign policy, ahead of his meeting with the President; 'Netanyahu is going to spoil the party and he has no problem with that,' an official said.

By Barak Ravid | Sep. 28, 2013 | 8:05 PM


NEW YORK - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed government ministers and official spokesmen on Saturday not to give interviews or issue public statements regarding the phone call between U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rohani, or on the Iranian issue in general.
Following Netanyahu's instructions, minsters Yuval Steinitz and Gilad Erdan, as well as Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren canceled scheduled interviews with various television stations.
Netanyahu's instructions were aimed at avoiding gaffes by ministers or official spokesmen such as criticism of Obama or U.S. foreign policy before Netanyahu meets with Obama at the White House on Monday.
Earlier on Saturday, a senior Israeli official said that White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice informed her Israeli counterpart Yaakov Amidror on Friday of the planned telephone conversation between Obama and Rohani, and then informed him of its contents after it had taken place.
"The goal of the prime minister's trip is to expose the Iranian lie at the United Nations," said a senior diplomatic source in Jerusalem. "Netanyahu fears they're heading toward a bad agreement with Iran, and if this is the situation, he prefers there be no agreement whatsoever."

The source added, "Netanyahu is going to spoil the party and he has no problem with that. He doesn't care if he's the only one saying it in public even if there are others in the world who think like him."
Netanyahu will depart from Israel Saturday night, arriving in New York early Sunday (local time). The prime minister will spend most of the day Sunday working on his speech before the United Nations General Assembly and preparing for his meeting with President Obama.
According to the schedule released by the prime minister's office, Netanyahu has only two meetings slated for Sunday – a meeting with Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird and a meeting with Turkmenistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov. The latter is a rather unusual meeting between an Israel prime minister and a high-ranking official from the Iran-bordering Muslim country. A few years ago, Israel opened an embassy in its capital Ashgabat.
On Monday, Netanyahu will fly to Washington, where he will meet with Obama at the White House. The bulk of the meeting will be behind closed doors, and will focus on Iran. After this meeting, a luncheon will be held for the Israeli delegation and its U.S. counterpart.
After meeting with Obama, Netanyahu will meet with Vice President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to speak at the J Street conference shortly beforehand. Netanyahu will then meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department in Washington, and before leaving for New York will take part in a parting ceremony for Ambassador Oren on Capitol Hill.
On Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu will arrive at the United Nations Headquarters in New York to give a speech before the General Assembly. Netanyahu will be the last state representative to address the UNGA. His speech will focus on Iran's nuclear program and the peace process with the Palestinians.



Hours before departing for U.S., Netanyahu instructs Israeli officials not to publicly discuss Iran - Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz

[Shah-i-Kot]

Israel PM to demand end to Iran nuclear programme

September 30, 2013, 5:03 am




Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel's prime minister will tell Washington that Iran's nuclear programme must be dismantled and not merely supervised when he visits the White House on Monday, Israeli media reported.
Benjamin Netanyahu will tell US President Barack Obama that Israel will abandon the diplomatic path on Iran's nuclear programme if it is not completely dismantled, according to the diplomatic correspondent of Israel's Channel One television network.
The implication was that Israel may be willing to take unilateral military action against Iran, the reporter said.
The reporter cited sources close to Netanyahu, who headed to New York Sunday vowing to counter the "sweet talk" of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who has said he wants to resolve the decade-long nuclear stand-off.
Both Israel and the United States have refused to rule out military action to halt Iran's nuclear drive, which they say is aimed at developing atomic weapons, charges adamantly denied by Tehran.
Rouhani's expressed desire for a rapprochement with Washington, and his historic phone call with Obama last week, have raised concerns in Israel that such gestures could blunt international efforts to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Netanyahu has long portrayed Rouhani as a "wolf in sheep's clothing", insisting that Iran is still a major threat to the Jewish state.
A recent poll found that most Israelis agree, with 78 percent believing Rouhani is not sincere about reaching a deal on the nuclear programme.
After meeting Obama, Netanyahu is due to address the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, the same forum where last year he used a cartoon bomb as a prop to underline how close he believed Iran was to being able to build a nuclear weapon.
Israel, the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear-armed power, remains adamant that Iran is bent on developing a weapons capability under the cover of its civilian nuclear programme, something it regards as a threat to its existence.


Israel PM to demand end to Iran nuclear programme - Yahoo!7

[Shah-i-Kot]

Netanyahu flies to US in role as spoil-sport to Iranian Rouhani's 'charm offensive'

At meeting with Obama, Netanyahu seeking reaffirmation of Israel's right to defend itself

By HERB KEINON, MICHAEL WILNER IN WASHINGTON
09/29/2013 23:22

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Prime minister expected to urge US president not to relieve sanctions imposed on Tehran until it halts nuclear program; National Security Adviser Rice: Israel has "every reason to be skeptical" over Iran's diplomatic overtures.


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will go into his meeting with US President Barack Obama on Monday aiming not only to reveal the “true face” of the Iranian regime, but also wanting to hear a reaffirmation from Obama of Israel’s right to defend itself.
One of Israel’s main concerns presently is that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s “charm offensive” has chipped away at Israel’s legitimacy for military action if Tehran crosses the red line Netanyahu established at the UN General Assembly last year.
Related:
Netanyahu is expected to urge Obama not to relieve the sanctions regime on Tehran until it stops uranium enrichment, removes it from the country, closes down the plant at Qom and abandons a plutonium channel to a nuclear bomb.
Netanyahu arrived in New York early on Sunday morning, and besides meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Turkmenistan’s Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, spent the day in his hotel working with top aides in preparation for the Obama meeting, and for his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
Among those prepping the prime minister were outgoing National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror and his replacement, Yossi Cohen, as well as outgoing Ambassador to Washington Michael Oren and his replacement, Ron Dermer.
Netanyahu will be armed in his efforts to show Iran’s malevolent face by Sunday’s publication of the arrest earlier in the month of an alleged Iranian agent who, among other targets, was casing the US Embassy in Tel Aviv.
An official traveling with Netanyahu said the incident showed there was little compatibility between Iran’s words and its actions, and that the Islamic Republic continued to promote terrorism around the globe.
“While the Iranian president sweet-talks the West, the ayatollahs’ Revolutionary Guards continue in their attempts to hurt Western interests in the Middle East, as is evidenced by the fact that the Iranian spy that was caught gathered intelligence on the US Embassy in Israel,” he said.
Just before leaving after midnight on Saturday, Netanyahu said he was going to “represent the citizens of Israel, our national interests, our rights as a people, our determination to defend ourselves and our hope for peace.”
Netanyahu, referring to Rouhani’s blitz last week in the US, said, “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.”
Following the meeting with Obama, where the Palestinian diplomatic track is expected to feature prominently, the two leaders are to give statements to the press.
Netanyahu is then scheduled to meet with Vice President Joe Biden in the White House, followed by a meeting at the State Department with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The prime minister is scheduled on Monday to meet with congressional leaders and to attend a congressional reception for Oren, before flying back to New York.
On Tuesday, he is to address the UN at 12:30 local time, and later in the afternoon to meet Secretary General Ban Kimoon.
The rest of the day, and much of Wednesday, before a meeting with US Jewish leaders, he is to give interviews.
Originally he was scheduled to fly back to Israel on Wednesday evening, but now the Prime Minister’s Office is considering adding on a day for more media opportunities.
In Washington, meanwhile, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria that Israel and its international partners “have every reason to be skeptical” over Iran’s diplomatic overtures.
“We need to test it, and any agreement must be fully verifiable and enforceable,” Rice said, adding that relations between the two nations were far from normalized.
“It’s way too soon to presume either the prospect of an agreement on the nuclear program, which we hope to be able to achieve, but we’re quite sober about the potential for that,” she said.
Rice’s comments echo similarly worded statements from senior administration officials, who say they have been in close contact with their Israeli counterparts over developments on the diplomatic front with Rouhani’s administration. Rice informed her counterparts in Israel of the Obama-Rouhani phone call on Friday shortly before it took place.




Netanyahu flies to US in role as spoil-sport to Iranian Rouhani's 'charm offensive'

By HERB KEINON
09/28/2013 22:38

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Israeli official says PM is accustomed to role of "spoil-sport" and did so when he advised caution in early days of Arab Spring.




Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu left late Saturday night for a three-day visit to the US, where he will try to offset Iranian Prime Minister Hassan Rouhani’s “charm offensive” by stressing that Iran must be judged by its actions, not words.
Government officials acknowledged that Netanyahu had his work cut out for him, as US President Barack Obama’s telephone conversation with the Iranian president on Friday indicated there was a new, more open attitude toward Tehran.
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“We are aware that in this atmosphere we are swimming against the current,” one official said. The official added, however, that Netanyahu was accustomed to the “spoilsport” role, having played that part as well in the early days of the Arab Spring when he advised caution even as the West was fully embracing the various revolutions.
“Many people now realize that he was right when he advised caution and said the events could go either way,” the official added.
Before heading to the US, Netanyahu directed his ministers not to comment on the Obama-Rouhani phone call or US-Iranian relations, in an apparent effort not to embarrass him before his scheduled meeting with Obama in Washington on Monday.
Netanyahu’s office did not issue any reaction to the phone call.
The prime minister is scheduled to arrive Sunday in New York, where he is slated to meet Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, considered to be one of Israel’s best friends on the international stage.
Netanyahu will fly to Washington Monday for his meeting with Obama, the first time they will have met since Obama’s visit to Israel in March. While Iran will be a major focus of the discussion, the two leaders are also expected to spend time talking about the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians.
Obama, during his speech to the UN last week, said solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was one of the US’s two primary goals in the Middle East, along with stopping Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. US Secretary of State John Kerry indicated in a speech he gave last week that Obama was poised to take a more active role in the negotiation process.
Obama met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week in New York, and Kerry said that Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas would “be consulting among each other” when appropriate to move the process forward.
Netanyahu is also slated to meet US Vice President Joe Biden and Kerry in Washington, as well as with congressional leaders during a going-away reception for outgoing Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. The Obama-Netanyahu meeting will take place on Oren’s last day on the job; he will be formally replaced by Ron Dermer on October 1.
Netanyahu will fly back to New York on Monday evening, for his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. He is expected to spend the bulk of that speech trying to “take the mask off” of Rouhani’s facade, and argue to the world that it would be a mistake to lessen the pressure on Iran before it takes the concrete steps necessary to halt its nuclear program.
Netanyahu has said Iran must take four steps to show it is serious about halting its program: Stop all uranium enrichment, transfer the enriched uranium it has accumulated out of the country, close down the Fordow uranium enrichment plant and stop working on a plutonium channel to a nuclear bomb.
Following his UN address, Netanyahu will meet UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon, and is also expected to give a number of interviews to the US media.
While the emphasis of his address to the UN will be on Iran, he is also expected to discuss the Palestinian issue.
In a related matter, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, the head of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians, and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, briefed the Middle East Quartet on the status of the negotiations during a Quartet meeting held Friday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The meeting was attended by Kerry, Ban, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and Quartet envoy Tony Blair.
Following the meeting, the Quartet issued a statement saying that it “reaffirmed its determination to lend effective support to the efforts of the parties and their shared commitment to reach a permanent status agreement within the agreed goal of nine months.”
The nine-month goal would mean an agreement by April.
The Quartet “commended” Netanyahu and Abbas for their “leadership” and “commitment to remaining engaged in sustained and continuous negotiations to address all of the core issues.”
The statement said the Quartet “called on all parties to take every possible step to promote conditions conducive to the success of the negotiating process and to refrain from actions that undermine trust or prejudge final status issues.”
The statement also “noted the importance of both sides demonstrating a commitment to improving the atmosphere for the negotiations, including through positive messages by the leaders.”

[asad71]

1.WCC (Western Christian Civilization) and the Zionists have been planning an in-fight among the Muslims between the Shiahs and the Sunnis.To that end WCC would encourage the Shiahs to develop and strenghthen to be able to take on the Sunnis.

2. But we are aware of this. Late Ayatullah Ruhullah Khomeni's principal message to the Muslims was for unity.