And what if you were wrong?

And what if you were wrong?

  • 7/20/2015
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    UN Security Council endorses the Iranian agreement UN Security Council endorses the Iranian agreement Copyright: UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz
     
     

    ​No one likes to be the odd person out. We in Israel would have loved nothing better than to be able to join the congratulatory comments following the agreement between Iran and the p5+1. Unfortunately this is not the case.

     

    Israel can’t ignore Iran’s long standing public calling for its destruction. Today, 67 years after our independence, 70 years after the defeat of the Nazi annihilation machinery, Israel remains the only nation in the World that faces such threats. It is not a conflict over the territory or our identity; it is an explicit negation and rejection of our very existence.
     
    This menacing record has been left out of the agreement. Some claim that over the next few years Iran will probably become more moderate. Meanwhile, It can continue significant enrichment; the constraints will be in place for a limited number of years; there is no sufficient degree of exclusion of Iran’s weaponization activity nor does it ensure a tight enough monitoring and verification mechanism of “anytime and anywhere”.
    In short, so much is dependent on the assumption that Iran will change. In our neck of the woods however, the relevant question is” what if you were wrong?”
     
    -Ambassador Yosef Livne