adminTEL AVIV – Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, newly reappointed after being cleared of corruption, yesterday urged his government to avoid spats with the US over its policy on Iran’s nuclear drive. Israel and the United States have been locked in a war of words over negotiations between world powers and Iran that could see sanctions relaxed in exchange for Tehran curbing or freezing parts of the disputed atomic programme.
“Regarding our recent differences with the United States, it’s now time to calm things down,” Lieberman said at a ceremony marking his return to the foreign ministry after an absence of more than a year.
He said he had met US ambassador Dan Shapiro in his “first work meeting” yesterday morning, and stressed that “relations with the US are crucial, and without them we cannot manoeuvre on the world stage.”
“Our relations are good and stable, and nothing can change that. It’s only natural that we’ll sometimes have differences of opinion with the US . . . but these differences need not be expressed publicly,” he said.
Shapiro on Monday sought to quell Israeli fears over an emerging deal with Iran, vowing that Washington would never let Tehran acquire a nuclear weapon.
President Barack Obama “will not permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, period,” he told delegates attending the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Jerusalem. – AFP.
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