Obama Rejects Israel Intelligence

The administration of President Barack Obama has rejected Israel’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear capabilities and readiness to reduce its program.

Officials said the U.S. intelligence community has dismissed Israel’s assessment of Iran’s nuclear program amid P5+1 negotiations with Teheran. They said the Israeli assessment of an imminent weapons-capable Iran was exaggerated and alarmist.

“Some of the reporting on this has been frankly misleading,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice said.

On Nov. 13, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry urged the Senate Banking Committee to suspend plans to impose additional sanctions on Iran. The two dismissed Israel’s assessment that suspending sanctions would enable Teheran to bolster its weapons capabilities.

“It [administration briefing] was fairly anti-Israeli,” Sen. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, recalled.

Kirk said the Israeli assessment was that the P5+1 deal, also opposed by France, would delay Iran’s program by 24 days. He cited the administration’s willingness to allow Iran to keep most of its nuclear capabilities.

“I was supposed to disbelieve everything the Israelis had just told me, and I think the Israelis probably have a pretty good intelligence service,” Kirk said.

Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee expressed skepticism over the administration’s dismissal of the Israeli assessment. They said most of the panel agreed that Iran would retain its nuclear assets while enjoy a significant reduction in sanctions.

“We are reducing sanctions while Iran is not reducing its nuclear capabilities,” Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said.

Kerry, who spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Nov. 14, warned that additional U.S. sanctions would torpedo any chance of a nuclear agreement with Iran. He said the current dialogue between Washington and Teheran, the first since 1979, would also end. Later, Kerry acknowledged that Washington planned to unfreeze some of the $45 billion in Iranian assets in the United States.

“All we’re talking about doing is a tiny portion of that would be released,” Kerry said in a television interview on Nov. 14. “Because you have to do something in order to make it worthwhile for them to say yes.”

But the senators were not persuaded by what they termed a classified briefing that contained almost no details of the interim deal presented to Iran. They said the deal was also opposed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies in the Middle East.

“What the administration was promoting is something the Israelis think is a bad deal for them,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. “It’s pretty clear the Sunni Arab allies of ours also think it’s a bad deal. Looking at it strictly from an American point of view, I think it’s a bad deal as well.”