Netanyahu, Trump Seem To Differ on How Far To Go To Dismantle Iran’s Nuclear Program

Israel and America appear at odds, at least for now, on what may be the crucial issue of the Iran war: should ground troops plunge into Iran to remove Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and destroy the threat of Iran’s emergence as a nuclear power?The debate over what to do about Iran extends to this week’s summit in Beijing at which President Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping will look for a solution to a crisis that may get worse before it gets better. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made indelibly plain his view “there’s work to be done” in stripping Iran totally of its nuclear potential.In an interview with CBS News’ Major Garrett on “60 Minutes,” Mr. Netanyahu noted that Iran “has nuclear material, enriched uranium that has to be taken out.” There were, he said,” still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled, there’s still proxies that Iran supports, there are ballistic missiles that they still want to produce.“ In turn, Mr. Trump posted in capital letters on Truth Social that he found Iran’s proposal for ending the war “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!.”Mr. Trump has avoided responding directly to Mr. Netanyahu’s tough talk on neutering Iran as a nuclear threat and may have nothing definitive to say on the topic at least until thrashing it out with Mr. Xi in Beijing in their meetings on Thursday and Friday.Instead, in an interview on “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson,” Mr. Trump talked tough but in generalities that did not touch on a ground war in Iran. “We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon because they’re crazy,” he said. “We cannot let them have access to nuclear.“ He maintained “they are defeated” but said, “That doesn’t mean they’re done.“But what about invading Iran? The inference was he would stick to bombing and strafing. “We have other targets that we could conceivably hit,” he said, evading the question of a ground war, “but even if we didn’t do that, you know, that would just be final touches.“ And, he added, “Even if we didn’t do that, it would take them many years to rebuild.”The Chinese, for their part, are being extremely close-mouthed about the war, indicating they still want to see what Mr. Trump can offer by way of concessions on the “three T’s” — trade, tariffs and Taiwan — before using their influence over Iran, the source of nearly half of China’s oil.Interestingly, the Chinese have signaled their strategy not by what they’re saying on Iran but by what they’re not saying, which is nothing.China’s English-language Global Times put out a three-paragraph statement Monday headlined simply, “Chinese, US top leaders to exchange views on bilateral ties, world peace and development.” That report quoted a Chinese spokesperson as saying Mr. Xi would have “an in-depth exchange of views with President Trump on major issues concerning China-US relations as well as world peace and development.”The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, besides carrying much the same story, published an 1,800-word analysis, in English, with the promising headline,. “Xi navigates China-U.S. ties amid global uncertainty.”“The Chinese capital will soon become the setting for one of the most closely watched, high-stakes diplomatic encounters of the year, as the leaders of the world’s two largest economies prepare to meet face-to-face,” the story began. “This will be U.S. President Donald Trump’s first state visit to China since his re-election, and the second time Chinese President Xi Jinping has hosted him in the country — their last such meeting in the country took place nearly a decade ago.”After those opening words, the story omitted all mention of Iran as though the country did not exist. The closest it came to anything to do with the war was by asking, rhetorically, “How can President Xi and President Trump manage differences between the two sides? How can they navigate the world’s most consequential bilateral relationship?”The answer to those cosmic questions may depend on the pressure that China brings to bear on Iran, to which it provides technological gear for factories producing missiles and drones. Mr. Netanyahu, talking to “60 Minutes,” was vague on whether China is still shipping such stuff to Iran, but North Korea military expert Bruce Bechtol has written that North Korea has sold Iran the expertise to produce all that plus basic infantry weapons.By saying nothing about Iran, the Chinese have made plain they’re not all that supportive of the Iran position — and still might pressure for a deal that would postpone, possibly for years, the whole question of Iran totally giving up its nuclear program.Iran, not surprisingly, claimed that it was demanding only its “legitimate rights” and that its proposal was “generous.” Iranian negotiators, however, had to have known that their demands, beginning with a 30-day “timeline” to resolve all issues, including its nuclear program, would go nowhere. By suggesting that hiatus, the Iranians implied they would put off, forever, if possible, the question of their nuclear program, on the verge of enriching uranium for nuclear weapons before Mr. Trump ordered the bombing of most of Iran’s deeply entrenched nuclear facilities in June.

Netanyahu, Trump Seem To Differ on How Far To Go To Dismantle Iran’s Nuclear Program

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