Don\’t ease up on Iran in exchange for help against ISIS, PM warns

Israel is observing developments in the region with a wary eye. In a speech at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, "I know for a certainty what Menachem Begin would say about something I have been hearing more and more about in recent days from esteemed commentators in the West.
 

"They are saying that the major powers need to go easy on Iran\’s nuclear program so that Iran will fight ISIS," Netanyahu said. [Iran] is fighting ISIS for its own interests. They are fighting over who will be the ruler of the Islamist world that they want to set over the entire world. It is as if Assad would say \’Go easy on my chemical weapons. Give me back my chemical weapons so that I can fight ISIS.\’ Both are absurd.
 

"Menachem Begin would reject this outright and so do I. Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear threshold state."
 

The comments made to Reuters by Iranian officials, who asked not to be named, highlight how difficult it may be for the Western powers to keep the nuclear negotiations separate from other regional conflicts. Iran wields influence in the Syrian civil war and on the Iraqi government, which is fighting the advance of Islamic State fighters.
 

Iran has sent mixed signals about its willingness to cooperate on defeating Islamic State, a hard-line Sunni Islamist group that has seized large swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq and is blamed for a wave of sectarian violence, beheadings and massacres of civilians.
 

Iran\’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said recently that he vetoed a U.S. overture to Iran to work together on defeating Islamic State, but U.S. officials said there was no such offer. In public, both the U.S. and Iran have ruled out cooperating militarily in tackling the Islamic State threat.
 

But in private, Iranian officials have voiced a willingness to work with the United States against Islamic State, though not necessarily on the battlefield. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Iran has a role to play in defeating Islamic State, indicating the U.S. position may also be shifting.
 

"Iran is a very influential country in the region and can help in the fight against the ISIL terrorists … but it is a two-way street," said a senior Iranian official on condition of anonymity.
 

"You give something, you take something.
 

"ISIL is a threat to world security, not our (nuclear) program, which is a peaceful program," the official added.
 

Iran rejects Western allegations that it is amassing the capability to produce atomic weapons under cover of a civilian nuclear energy program.
 

Another Iranian official echoed the remarks. Both officials said they would like the United States and its Western allies to show flexibility on the number of atomic centrifuges Iran could keep under any long-term deal that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Ian\’s nuclear program.
 

"Both sides can show flexibility that will lead to an acceptable number for everyone," another Iranian official said.
 

Western officials told Reuters that Iran has not raised this idea in nuclear negotiations with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China that resumed in New York on Friday. Diplomats close to the talks say they are unlikely to settle in New York on a long-term accord that would lift sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iranian nuclear work.
 

The Western officials said it would be difficult for them to even discuss the point in the atomic negotiations as the United States and its allies are determined to keep the nuclear negotiations focused exclusively on atomic issues as the Nov. 24 deadline for a deal nears.

"We are seeing as we get closer to the end of the talks that the Iranians are tempted to bring other dossiers to the table," a senior Western diplomat said.
 

"They sometimes indicate that if there were to not be a (nuclear) deal, the other dossiers in region would be more complicated," he added. "The six are determined not to bring the other subjects to the nuclear negotiations table."
 

The New York talks among senior foreign ministry officials from the six powers and Iran are taking place on the sidelines of this week\’s annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly.
 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in New York with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday.
 

The number of nuclear centrifuges has emerged as the principal sticking point in negotiations, which are expected to continue in New York until at least Sept. 26.
 

Centrifuges are machines that spin at supersonic speed to increase the ratio of the fissile isotope in uranium. Low-enriched uranium is used to fuel nuclear power plants, Iran\’s stated goal, but can also provide material for bombs if refined much further, which the West fears may be Iran\’s latent goal.
 

Iran currently has over 19,000 centrifuges, though only around 10,000 of those are operational. The six powers want Iran to reduce the number of operational centrifuges to the low thousands, to ensure it cannot quickly produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a weapon, should it choose to do so.
 

Iranians are keen to keep as many of their centrifuges as possible, and have also suggested that they could keep all 19,000 installed while maintaining a much smaller number in an operational state. Western officials say they dislike that idea.
 

U.S. officials have made clear for months that the number of centrifuges they are willing to tolerate operating in Iran over the medium term would be in the low thousands to ensure that Iran\’s ability to produce a usable amount of bomb-grade uranium, should it go down that road, is severely limited.
 

Iran says such draconian limitations would be a violation of its right to enrich. Supreme Leader Khamenei has called that issue a "red line" for Iran.
 

Centrifuges are not the only sticking point in the talks. Others include the duration of any nuclear deal, the timetable for ending the sanctions, and the fate of a research reactor that could yield significant quantities of bomb-grade plutonium.
 

Under a November 2013 interim deal, Iran froze some parts of its atomic program in exchange for limited sanctions relief. That agreement was intended to buy time for negotiations on a comprehensive deal that end the decade-long standoff with Iran and remove the risk of yet another war in the Middle East.
 

Israel is skeptical about nuclear diplomacy with Iran. International Relations, Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Sunday, "We don\’t see a good deal with Iran. The emerging agreement will not be good for Israel. If the deal is reached, it will be between bad and very bad."