Israel and US in furious clash over Iran talks

Israel and the United States clashed furiously over the Iran nuclear talks Tuesday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning the deal under discussion would leave his country open to annihilation.
With Netanyahu in Washington to deliver an impassioned address to the US Congress, President Barack Obama hit back immediately, scoffing that he had presented no idea of his own to contain the Iranian threat.
And, with US Secretary of State John Kerry talking with his Iranian counterpart in Switzerland, the world powers represented in the negotiations continued to press for an accord that would limit Iran's nuclear options while loosening economic sanctions.
Netanyahu's party faces a close-fought Israeli parliamentary election in two weeks time and he has been accused in some quarters of imperilling Israel's close ties with Washington for personal political gain.
But, in a determined speech to a packed joint session of Congress, he pulled no punches in his denunciation of the accord that he expects Tehran to be offered before the month is out.  
"That deal will not prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons," he declared. "It would all but guarantee that Iran gets those weapons, lots of them."
"Iran's nuclear program would be left largely intact. Iran's breakout time would be very short," he warned.
Obama did not watch the speech, having arranged a video-conference with European leaders on the crisis in Ukraine, but afterwards he gave it short shrift.
"I am not focused in the politics of this. I am not focused on the theatre," Obama said. "As far as I can tell, there was nothing new.
"On the core issue, which is how to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon which would make it far more dangerous, the prime minister did not offer any viable alternatives."
"We don't yet have a deal," Obama added. "But if we are successful then, in fact, this will be the best deal possible with to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapon."
While some 50 members of Obama's Democrats stayed away from Netanyahu's address, many more lawmakers from both sides of the aisle did attend, and he was welcomed with a warm standing ovation and left to raucous applause.
"I know that my speech has been the subject of much controversy. I deeply regret that some perceive my being here as political," he said.
"That was never my intention," he insisted. "We appreciate all that President Obama has done for Israel."
But, despite his warm opening words, his speech built to a thorough denunciation of Obama's efforts to strike an accord.
"This deal has two major concessions. One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program. Two, lifting the restrictions on that program in about a decade," he said.
"That's why this deal is so bad. It doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb. It paves Iran's path to the bomb."
He cited the strength of Iranian-backed factions in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq as evidence of Tehran's regional ambitions, and recalled threats against his own people.
Thus, he said, no nuclear deal should weaken economic sanctions against Iran until its government ends its aggressive regional stance and frequent threats against Israel.
"A deal that is supposed to prevent nuclear proliferation would instead spark nuclear arms race in the most dangerous part of the planet," he warned.
"The Middle East would soon be criss-crossed by nuclear trip wires. A region where small skirmishes trigger big wars would turn into a nuclear tinderbox," he said.
An Iranian official dismissed Netanyahu's intervention, even as Tehran's envoys sat with Kerry in Montreux to hammer out an agreement ahead of a March 31 deadline.
"I don't think his carries much weight," Massoumeh Ebtekar, Tehran's vice-president for environmental affairs, told AFP during a visit to Paris.
"They are making their efforts to derail the deal but I think the more logical lobbies on both sides are looking forward to a solution," she added, calling for a "stronger role" for Iran in the Middle East.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also implicitly criticized Netanyahu, warning against "spreading fears" and promising that a deal is getting close.