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How Netanyahu exploits US-Iran tensions

For Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the low-level US-Iran tensions are a great opportunity to bolster his security image and to divert public attention from his legal imbroglio.
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His contribution to the 2018 US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran is considered one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's greatest achievements. His campaign against the Iranian threat combined with a close alliance with US President Donald Trump have yielded enormous political capital for Netanyahu. However, one year after the signing of the agreement, the sanctions policy he championed has failed to bring Iran to its knees. On the contrary, Tehran announced on June 17 that it would quadruple the pace of its low-grade enriched uranium production and pass the 300-kilogram limit set by the nuclear deal with world powers.

Thus, while the Iranians are upping the ante vis-à-vis Trump, the American president — Netanyahu’s ace in the deck — is seeking an escape hatch from a clash with Tehran. And while Netanyahu was posing for photos in the Jordan Valley with US national security adviser John Bolton June 23, Trump was voicing reservations about his hawkish, war-mongering aide and condemning people “who want to drag us into war.” In fact, the only campaign in which Trump is interested from now until November 2020 is the one for the presidential election. The New York Times reported that veteran Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson was the one who persuaded the president to abort the strike on Iranian targets and bring the bombers home. Tucker reportedly told Trump that instead of resulting in a regime change in Tehran, as Bolton hoped, a new war in the Middle East would bring about regime change in Washington.

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