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Israel fears Obama leading Mid-East towards catastrophe:report

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Press Trust of India Jerusalem
Last Updated : Dec 03 2013 | 1:57 PM IST
The Israeli political-security establishment is increasingly concerned by an American desire to reach a final deal with Iran regardless of the price, with some officials accusing US President Barack Obama of leading the region towards a catastrophe, a media report said today.
Despite the differences the formal channels of communication between Washington and Tel Aviv continue to exist, but Israeli officials believe that in the situation born out of the post-Geneva agreement, the Jewish state has pretty much lost its ability to influence Obama regarding Iran and other international issues, news portal Ynetnews reported.
To make matters worse, even those who oppose publicly clashing with America say that de facto contact between the policy makers in Obama's White House and Tel Aviv has been effectively cut off leading to the worst crisis in bilateral relations in the last two decades, the report said.
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid yesterday said that the US remains Israel's most "strategic asset," but some in Tel Aviv have no problem openly saying that Obama is leading the region towards a catastrophe, the news portal said.
Israeli officials believe that Obama has fortified himself behind a small and closed ideological circle, which believes in partial non-interventionism and has an aversion to international conflicts not only in the Middle East but also in South East Asia.
With regard to Iran, this circle reportedly believes in pursuing a permanent deal that allows Iran to reach the nuclear threshold, while containing the nuclear programme in such a way that will bar Iran from ever crossing the threshold or attaining a nuclear weapon without the West noticing.
Israeli officials contend that if this outline becomes a reality, it would be nothing short of a disaster for Israel.

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"It would mean Iran will be three months away from creating the material it needs for a first nuclear bomb," they said, arguing that there has been no real progress in Iran's "arms group", the group which develops the prototype for the Iran's nuclear centers and then its warheads.
"In Israel there are those that believe that Obama's administration is eager, if not to say anxious, to reach an agreement, maybe even more than the Iranians who are suffering because of the massive sanctions enacted against them," the news portal's analyst wrote.
They think that the American desire to reach an agreement originates from Obama's inner circle which wants the administration to survive the next three years without conflict, he said.

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First Published: Dec 03 2013 | 1:57 PM IST

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