Off the wire
• Roundup: Voting in municipal elections kicks off in Lithuania  • Experts warn of harmful effects of burning wood for energy  • WHO calls for more efforts to fight measles  • Doctors may have direct access to arms registry in Czech Republic  • Germany's benchmark DAX index little changed  • World Bank to provide 1.1 bln USD over 5 years to Albania  • 1st LD Writethru: U.S. stocks narrowly mixed amid Fed chair's second-day testimony  • No foul play in death of former Kazakh official: Austrian authorities  • Foreign exchange rate of euro to other currencies  • Nigerian parliament seeks forensic audit on state-run oil firm account  
You are here: 　 Home

Kerry slams Netanyahu for opposing Iran nuclear talks

Xinhua, February 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might be wrong in opposing the ongoing nuclear talks between world powers and Iran, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

"We won't take a backseat to anybody in our commitment to the state of Israel, but he may have a judgment that just may not be correct here," Kerry said before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Kerry added Netanyahu "was wrong" in opposing the interim agreement on Tehran's nuclear program, which the Israeli leader called "the deal of the century" for Iran.

"He was extremely outspoken about how bad the interim agreement was...even though it has clearly stopped Iran's program," Kerry said.

The rebuke from the top U.S. diplomat came ahead of Netanyahu's speech to the U.S. Congress next week at the invitation of Republican House speaker John Boehner. Netanyahu is expected to reiterate his objections to the negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

The White House has said President Barack Obama would not meet with the Israeli leader when he is in Washington, citing that the visit comes in too close proximity to Israeli elections.

On Tuesday, Susan Rice, Obama's national security advisor, called Netanyahu's scheduled speech "destructive" to the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

The Boehner's decision to invite Netanyahu without consulting the White House, and Netanyahu's decision to accept, had "injected a degree of partisanship" into the relationship between the two nations, Rice said in a television interview.

Netanyahu intensified Wednesday his criticism on the U.S.-led nuclear talks with Iran, accusing the world powers of "giving up on their commitment" to stopping the Islamic Republic from getting nuclear weapons.

Ha'aretz newspaper quoted Netanyahu as saying that the six powers, the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, " have accepted the fact that Iran, gradually over several years, will develop the capabilities to make fissile material for many nuclear bombs."

"Maybe they can live with it, but I can't," he added. Endite