海角大神

A daily summary of global reports on security issues

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bluntly warned world leaders not to be taken in by Iran's beneficent overtures in an address to the United Nations Tuesday. His bellicose speech stood in sharp contrast to a week of conciliatory words and聽optimism about US-Iranian rapprochement, and has weighed on US efforts to sustain the sense of hope that pervaded the UN last week.

The Wall Street Journal wrote that he聽"castigated" the US outreach to Iran, while The New York Times carried the headline "Israeli leader excoriates new president of Iran" and its editorial board described the speech as "aggressive."聽Haaretz, a left-leaning Israeli newspaper, called it "combative."

Mr. Netanyahu gave his now-familiar refrain that the new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is a "wolf in sheep's clothing," warned that the US is at risk of being duped by the new leadership's moderate facade, urged that sanctions not be eased, and said Israel was not convinced by the new leadership's assertion that it was not pursuing nuclear weapons, the Journal reports.

"I want there to be no confusion on this point. Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said in the address. "If Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone."

In a meeting at the White House Monday, President Obama reassured Netanyahu that the US remained committed to using force to stop Iran's nuclear program, if necessary, but the Israeli leader clearly remains unconvinced.

The US is struggling to maintain the congeniality and sense of possibility that it shared with Iran last week at the UN, which ended with a historic phone call between Mr. Rouhani and Obama.

The Journal reports that Obama's promise to keep military options on the table prompted a backlash from Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said on Twitter that the comment was "macho and wrong."

"President Obama needs consistency to promote mutual confidence," Mr. Zarif wrote. "Flip-flop destroys trust and undermines US credibility." Reuters reports that Zarif wrote聽on his Facebook page聽that,聽"We will not let Netanyahu determine the future of our talks."

Today, an Iranian lawmaker criticized the US for lacking "stability" in its decisionmaking,聽Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reports.

The New York Times cited a "stark"聽contrast between Netanyahu and Rouhani during their respective addresses.

Gary Sick,聽a former National Security Council staff member and Iran specialist, described Netanyahu鈥檚 speech as an "ineffective attempt to abort the momentum that Mr. Rouhani had sought to build."聽

鈥淗e was so anxious to make everything look as negative as possible he actually pushed the limits of credibility," he told The New York Times, describing it as incongruous after last week's outreach from Rouhani. 鈥淚t really is jarring to see that, the extreme element, and how far he was willing to push it. He did himself harm by his exaggerations.鈥�

But as 海角大神's Jerusalem bureau chief, Christa Case Bryant, noted Monday, Israel is willing to be the spoiler, because in its leadership's eyes, the alternative is extermination.聽