President Obama is defending his administration’s recent foreign policy moves including the new nuclear framework with Iran, saying the despite the deal, the U.S. will ensure Israel maintains its “qualitative military edge” and “would stand by” its longtime ally.
In an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman published Sunday, Obama said the U.S. must continue to be confident when engaging in diplomatic relations with other countries — especially Iran.
“We are powerful enough to be able to test these propositions without putting ourselves at risk. And that’s the thing … people don’t seem to understand,” the president said. “You take a country like Cuba. For us to test the possibility that engagement leads to a better outcome for the Cuban people, there aren’t that many risks for us. It’s a tiny little country. It’s not one that threatens our core security interests, and so [there’s no reason not] to test the proposition.
“And if it turns out that it doesn’t lead to better outcomes, we can adjust our policies. The same is true with respect to Iran, a larger country, a dangerous country, one that has engaged in activities that resulted in the death of U.S. citizens, but the truth of the matter is: Iran’s defense budget is $30 billion. Our defense budget is closer to $600 billion. Iran understands that they cannot fight us. … You asked about an ‘Obama doctrine.’ The doctrine is: We will engage, but we preserve all our capabilities.”
Iran is not undeterrable, Obama said: “Iran may change. If it doesn’t, our deterrence capabilities, our military superiority stays in place. … We’re not relinquishing our capacity to defend ourselves or our allies. In that situation, why wouldn’t we test it?”
The president also defended the recent Iran nuclear deal to the Israelis — especially Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama explained that the new deal will not have an effect on that country’s day-to-day affairs, or its military.
“But what I would say to them is that not only am I absolutely committed to making sure that they maintain their qualitative military edge, and that they can deter any potential future attacks, but what I’m willing to do is to make the kinds of commitments that would give everybody in the neighborhood, including Iran, a clarity that if Israel were to be attacked by any state, that we would stand by them. And that, I think, should be … sufficient to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see whether or not we can at least take the nuclear issue off the table,” he said.
Obama also stressed that this nuclear deal is the best possible option for Israel: “[T]here is no option, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon that will be more effective than the diplomatic initiative and framework that we put forward — and that’s demonstrable.”
The president also extended his sympathies to the Israeli people — an offer being made at a time when many view his relationship with Netanyahu as a strained and unhealthy one.
“There has to be a way for Prime Minister Netanyahu to disagree with me on policy without being viewed as anti-Democrat, and I think the right way to do it is to recognize that as many commonalities as we have, there are going to be strategic differences. And I think that it is important for each side to respect the debate that takes place in the other country and not try to work just with one side … But this has been as hard as anything I do because of the deep affinities that I feel for the Israeli people and for the Jewish people. It’s been a hard period,” Obama said, adding that Israel and the U.S. “share blood.”
“We’re not done yet,” Obama said about the Iran deal, cautioning that “there are a lot of details to work out,” with a real possibility it falls apart.
