Itongadol.- Israel fears a bad deal is imminent between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program, Ambassador Ron Dermer warned on Thursday.
Speaking in Washington, Dermer said negotiations in Vienna between Iran and the P5+1— the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany— risked leaving Iran "a threshold nuclear power" that would move them back from "two months, where they are today, to maybe two or three months further" from a nuclear weapon.
"They cheated in Natanz," Dermer told the group, warning Western powers against— in exchange for time— extensive dismantlement of its sanctions infrastructure on Iran. "They cheated in Qom."
Dermer\’s conversation was hosted by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, hosting its annual forum, focused on threats permeating from the Middle East.
Also speaking to the forum at the Mandarin Oriental, Representative Ed Royce (R-CA), chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, spoke in the past tense of what successful policy on Iran might look like.
"Failure is anything short of having a verifiable way to dismantle the nuclear weapons program, Royce said. "Failure would be allowing Iran to proceed with an [intercontinental ballistic missile] program."
"Success," he said, "would have been to pass that legislation."
Royce was referring to legislation passed over the summer through the House of Representatives, by 400 to 20, to further sanction Iran\’s oil sector. The conservative think tank, FDD, was at the table in the drafting of the bill.
Two months after that legislation passed, direct talks began between Iran and the United States in New York, and continued in Geneva shortly thereafter.
Reacting to the shift, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ) adapted the legislation to include a trigger for sanctions should the P5+1 talks fail to achieve a comprehensive solution to the impasse.
The bill, however, drew a veto threat from US President Barack Obama, who warned that new sanctions legislation would derail negotiations. Senate leadership has declined to bring Menendez\’ bill to the floor for debate.
On Thursday, Menendez told FDD that he stands by the bill, suggesting its passage will "prevent a set of circumstances" in which Obama, or his successor, will face a stark dilemma: acceptance of a nuclear Iran, or war.
"No one wants a diplomatic solution more than I do. But it cannot be a deal for a deal\’s sake," Menendez said. "And I am worried they want a deal more than they want the right deal."
Before that time, Menendez suggested that his "trigger" sanctions bill might be revisited.
"I think that time may be coming soon," the chairman added.