US to Israel: Diplomacy preferable to war

Tactical differences? Netanyahu tweets against 'bad deal' with Iran, State Department's Jen Psaki responds saying alternative to diplomacy is war

Yitzhak Benhorin

The spat between allies Israel and the US continues: The American administration believes the path proposed by Israel to subdue Iran with sanctions may lead to war and not to a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue, State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned over Twitter against a "bad deal" with Iran.

"I think we're looking at multiple tracks here, including our continued pursuit of seeing whether a diplomatic path is possible. The alternative in our view is a path to war," Psaki said

Earlier on Friday, Netanyahu took to Twitter to warn against rushing into a "bad deal" with Iran.

"The proposal enables Iran to develop atomic bombs and build long-range missiles to reach the US and Europe," it read. "Iran is getting everything and giving nothing."

Psaki said she saw the tweet Friday but had no response to it. She reiterated though that Israel and the United States had the same goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

"The place where we diverge a bit is on the tactical level, where we believe we need a first step that halts Iran's program to give us time to negotiate this long-term agreement and they believe we should just keep upping the pressure on Iran to get them to capitulate all at once to a long-term agreement," Psaki said.

"We don't, obviously, think that's a path that is possible."

At the same time, Netanyahu was interviewed for the French newspaper La Figaro, ahead of French President Francois Hollande's scheduled visit to Israel next week. Netanyahu called on France not to "flex" in next week's talks with Iran, and noted the special relationship between Israel and France.

  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4453979,00.html