Ambassador Shapiro: No link between Iran nuke issue, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
US Ambassador to Israel contradicts PM's remarks that a nuclear Iran would harm any future agreement with the Palestinians; "There is no connection between these two issues," Shapiro says in interview with Army Radio.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUS Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro.(photo credit: Courtesy of US embassy Israel)
The United States does not see a connection between the Iranian nuclear issue and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro told Army Radio on Monday."There is no connection between these two issues," Shapiro said in contradiction to previous remarks made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that a nuclear Iran would harm any future peace agreement with the Palestinians."Both of these issues are connected to the security of Israel and also to our security and the entire Middle East," he said, adding however that "we do not see any relation between them to which we seek to give on one and receive on another".Netanyahu, speaking to the annual Saban Forum of the Brookings Institution on Sunday, said "our best efforts to reach Palestinian-Israeli peace will come to nothing if Iran succeeds in building atomic bombs"."A nuclear armed Iran would give even greater backing to the radical and terrorist elements in the region. It would undermine the chances of arriving at a negotiated peace," Netanyahu warned.
