Is Netanyahu responsible for Iran deal?
Instead of objecting to progress toward an Iranian nuclear deal, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should claim partial responsibility for removing or at least postponing the threat to Israel's security.
![Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wu, French Foreign Minister Fabius, EU High Rep Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Zarifat arrive to deliver statements following nuclear talks in Lausanne (L-R) Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Wu Hailong, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarifat arrive to deliver statements following nuclear talks at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne) April 2, 2015. Iran and world powers reached a framework on curbing Iran's nuclear programme at marathon talks in Switzerland on Thursday that will allow further n](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_medium/public/almpics/2015/04/RTR4VXIL.jpg/RTR4VXIL.jpg?h=c11c9c1d&itok=R2aJBnmb)
If the joint Lausanne statement becomes a permanent agreement between the superpowers and Iran, we will have to take off our hats to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. No one contributed more than he did to the removal, or at least the postponement, of the danger that power-hungry ayatollahs would have their fingers on a button of an atom bomb. Leaders have won the Nobel Prize for lesser achievements.
For years, Netanyahu forced the international community to put dealing with the Iranian nuclear program at the top of its agenda. If it weren’t for his threat (whether real or not) to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities, it’s not certain that the powers would have united to ensure that Iran would have to make do with nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. If it weren’t for Netanyahu’s success in recruiting members of Congress to the initiative to intensify the sanctions on Iran, it’s quite doubtful that Tehran would have entered open negotiations with “the Great Satan.” Like the idea that only a conservative leader like Richard Nixon could have paved the way to US dialogue with Communist China, it can be said that only a conservative Israeli leader like Netanyahu could have paved the one to US dialogue with Shiite Iran.