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Mofaz: Timetable needed
Photo: Gil Yohanan

Mofaz: Dialogue with Iran needs timetable

Israeli minister meets with US State Department representatives, says Iran may use dialogue to buy time, warns against 'playing into hands of Iranians'

Any dialogue with Iran needs to have a timetable, said Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz in a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns on Monday.

 

Mofaz, who is responsible for Israel's strategic dialogue with the US, was referring to a statement made by President-Elect Barack Obama on Sunday, in an interview to NBC's 'Meet the Press,' that he intends to pursue a carrot-and-stick policy with the Iranians.

 

The minister had requested the meeting with Rice and Burns in order to ask them to relay to the new administration that dialogue with Iran "might play into the hands of the Iranians" and as such, needs to be limited in terms of time.

 


Mofaz with Rice (Photo: Roe Zachs)

 

The meeting was also designed to summarize joint efforts between Israel and the US undertaken during the Bush administration, prior to a new administration taking office on January 20.

 

"We can't tell the Americans which way to choose, as long as their objective is to prevent the Iranians from going nuclear," Mofaz told reporters. "If the opportunity arises for direct negotiation, we'll ask to relay two issues to the transition team."

 

The first of these, according to Mofaz, is that Iran's strategy is to buy time and that the direct path might play into their hands if it has no timeframe. The second is the importance of ensuring that no uranium enrichment occurs on Iranian soil during negotiations, he said.

 

Mofaz said he felt that strategic meetings, such as the one on Monday, were a successful mode of operation and hoped that they would continue to take place between Israel and the new American administration after Obama's inauguration.

 

"We agree to a strategic dialogue. We had ten meetings in the past two and a half year and turned this forum into a serious platform, where we put everything on the table, exchanged intelligence information and determined objectives," Mofaz said.

 

He added that "no one is taking the military option off the table." According to the minister, both American and Israeli intelligence information indicates that Iran is expected to achieve nuclear capabilities within a year and a half to two years at this rate.

 


פרסום ראשון: 12.09.08, 00:22
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