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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, will convene a meeting with his senior cabinet ministers and security officials on Friday to discuss the draft agreement between Iran and world powers on Iran’s nuclear programme – a deal that Netanyahu has fiercely condemned as a “threat to Israel’s existence”.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Israeli tactics during the negotiations have left it marginalised and with seriously diminished leverage to alter the outcome if the deal is ratified at the end of June.

In a statement released in the early hours of Friday morning after Barack Obama called the Israeli PM to discuss the deal, Netanyahu said: “A deal that is based on this framework will threaten Israel’s existence … The alternative is to stand firmly and increase pressure on Iran until a better deal is reached.

“This deal would legitimise Iran’s nuclear programme, bolster Iran’s economy and increase Iran’s aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond,” he said. “It would increase the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region and the risks of a horrific war.”

According to the Israeli prime minister’s office, during the phone conversation Netanyahu referred to comments made by a leader of the hardline Iranian Basij militia that “the destruction of Israel is non-negotiable”.

“In these fateful days Iran is accelerating the arming of its terror proxies to attack Israel,” Netanyahu added.

The prime minister’s political allies weighed in, including the intelligence and strategic affairs minister, Yuval Steinitz, who said: “We will do everything to fight this and to close the breaches in the agreement. This is truly a deceitful illusion that sends a bad message to the entire region.”

Although Steinitz has attempted to suggest in recent days that an Israeli military option remains on the table, few believe that it is a realistic possibility, not least because Netanyahu has already deferred once to objections to military action among senior military and intelligence leaders.

While Israeli rhetoric threatening military action has died down over the past year or so, the head of Israel’s military planning directorate, Maj Gen Nimrod Sheffer, has also warned that it is still a possibility.

“The military option has always been on the table, as we have said all along,” Sheffer told the Israel Hayom newspaper on Friday. “If it has not been mentioned much in the media recently, that does not reflect a change in policy.”

Realistically, however, an Israeli military strike without US backing and directed against a keynote foreign policy of a sitting American president supported by key players on the UN security council and the EU seems highly unlikely.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, delivered a sharp rebuff to both Israeli demands and those of Israel’s Congressional supporters in the wake of the agreement. “Simply demanding that Iran capitulate makes a nice soundbite, but it is not a policy, it is not a realistic plan,” he said.

While Netanyahu has continued to insist that a “better deal” was available, Israeli commentators were split over the draft deal, with some painting it as a defeat for Netanyahu after he had staked so much on his efforts to derail it.

Writing in Yedioth Aharonth, columnist Nahum Barnea was harsh in his assessment: “Netanyahu made the battle against the Iranian nuclear programme a top priority for his government … The truth should be told: this was a resounding failure for Israel.

As the clash between Netanyahu and Obama on the Iranian issue heightened, Israel’s influence on the course of the negotiations and its outcome lessened. The Americans did not share the details with Israel.”

He added: “The dilemma that Netanyahu faces today is not an easy one. He can push the leaders of the Republican majority in the two houses of Congress to try to torpedo the agreement. Congress can, ostensibly, insist on continuing the sanctions. Such a course of action would be unusual in the American political tradition, and it would entail various risks, but it is possible. It is doubtful whether doing this would achieve its purpose.”

Barnea’s comments reflect the assessment that Netanyahu’s most likely course of action will be to attempt to rally supporters in Congress to block the agreement.

But with the draft agreement far more explicit and involving more concessions than Israel has vociferously claimed, including over the number centrifuges Iran will be allowed to retain, some believe Israel may have overplayed its hand already, not least with the more hawkish Democrats whom it will need to convince as well as Republicans.

*The Guardian