Israel: We Are Still in Dark on Iran Deal Details

YERUSHALAYIM (Hamodia Staff) —

Despite reassurances from Washington that Israel would be kept fully informed about the details of the Iran nuclear agreement, Israel’s National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen has asserted that such has not been the case.

“Israel has yet to receive the addendums to Iran’s agreement with the powers, despite promises,” Cohen told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

“We don’t have the whole picture,” Cohen said, explaining that without the missing pieces it would be impossible to make a thorough evaluation of the accord.

He cited the recent visit to Israel by Germany’s chief negotiator at the talks, Hans-Dieter Lucas, whom he charged was not forthcoming about certain aspects of the agreement.

In particular, he said, Israel is being denied information about Iran’s deal with the IAEA vis-a-vis Iran’s military sites. At issue is access to inspectors at the military base in Parchin, where Iran is suspected of trying to assemble components of a nuclear weapon.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s decision to skip Israel during his latest trip to the Mideast did not go down well in Yerushalayim.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was quoted on Army Radio as being bitterly cynical in private conversation, saying “he really has no reason to come here.” The Iran deal, he said sarcastically, “has nothing to do with us, and has no influence on us.

“We’re not at the table” where it was negotiated, Netanyahu reportedly concluded. “We’re one of the courses on the menu itself.”

Kerry’s itinerary begins in Cairo, for the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue on Sunday. He then goes to Doha, Qatar, to meet with foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

The State Department dismissed the matter, pointing out that Kerry has been in frequent consultation with Netanyahu during the entire last phase of the Iran negotiations, has met with him in Yerushalayim many times, and that at this juncture there is no practical need for a meeting.

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