Susan Rice the national security advisor for President Barack Obama hosted a number of meetings with officials from Israel last week in an attempt to gain support from the Israelis for the interim deal with Tehran that was aimed at containing the nuclear program in Iran.
The White House announced the meeting on Sunday. They arose from the talks between Benjamin Netanyahu the Prime Minister of Israel and President Obama in November as the U.S. attempted to persuade Israel to support their negotiated deal with Tehran.
Israel maintains its doubts that Iran will give up the nuclear program the West believes had an end goal of developing nuclear weapons.
Rice and Tony Blinken her deputy, along with senior officials in the State and Treasury Departments met with Yossi Cohen the national security adviser in Israel and other officials from the government two days last week.
Last week’s meetings were just a first step towards keeping the promise that Obama made to Netanyahu during their phone conversation of November 24 that the U.S. would consult with them regarding any effort to reach a comprehensive accord with Iran.
Obama continues to argue to Israel and those supporting them as well as to U.S. Senate members that the next six months are important to test whether Tehran is serious in reaching a deal on its nuclear program.
Some Senate members have been eager to slap more economic sanctions against Iran, which is a prospect that the White House continues to argue would create a problem in the delicate diplomacy, taking place with Iran.
Obama said if after six months a deal cannot be reached we are still no worse off. In fact, said Obama we have much better leverage in the international community to continue applying sanctions and make them stronger if needed.
