Kerry Says U.S. Must Test Iranian Diplomatic Sincerity

It would be “diplomatic malpractice” not to test Iran’s sincerity to negotiate a deal that insures it can’t develop nuclear weapons, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, speaking at a joint news conference with Kerry in Tokyo today, also defended the U.S. willingness to talk to the new Iranian government, saying that “engagement is not appeasement; it is not surrender.”

The comments from the top U.S. diplomat and Pentagon chief were the first by senior Obama administration officials since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the world not to trust Iran in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly this week.

Western diplomats expressed optimism last week at the UN after agreeing to resume stalled international nuclear talks with Iran’s new government on Oct. 15-16 in Geneva. Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani and President Barack Obama had a 15-minute telephone conversation at the Iranian’s behest -- the highest-level encounter between the two governments since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

Rouhani disavowed any interest in nuclear weapons at the UN and said Iran wants to swiftly calm international concerns over its nuclear program, while retaining its “right” to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

Israeli Skepticism

As the U.S. and its five partners - the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia - go into talks this month, Kerry said today that “the test we face now, over these next weeks and months -- not a long period of time, mind you, over a short period of time -- is to determine” whether Iran is ready to back up its pledge to come clean with the international community.

Israel’s government and some of its supporters in Washington have expressed skepticism about Iran’s sincerity, suggesting its leaders are playing for time to develop a “break-out” capacity enabling the Persian Gulf state to race to make a weapon before the world can react. They want international economic sanctions against Iran maintained.

Netanyahu told the UN on Oct. 1 that Rouhani’s “soothing rhetoric” is contradicted by his country’s “savage record” of sponsoring global terror attacks and the expansion of its disputed nuclear program, despite UN resolutions ordering a halt to enrichment.

“The pressure on Iran must continue,” Netanyahu said. “When it comes to Iran’s nuclear program, here’s my advice: Distrust, dismantle, verify.”

Israeli Security

Kerry and Hagel insisted today that the U.S. won’t make any deal that sacrifices Israel’s security, which they called paramount to the U.S., nor will the president abandon the threat of force to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon should talks fail.

“Nothing with respect to the security of Israel will be allowed to come between the relationship between Israel and the United States,” Kerry said at a news conference with Hagel, following the signing of an updated U.S.-Japan security accord with their Japanese counterparts.

“No deal is better than a bad deal,” Kerry said, insisting that the U.S. won’t sign onto anything less than a verifiable accord that puts Iran’s nuclear program under international safeguards.

Oil Sanctions

Even so, Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, called it “diplomatic malpractice of the worst order not to examine” every opportunity “before you ask people to take military action.” The U.S. will act in a “clear-eyed” manner and will test Iran’s “actions with their words,” Hagel said.

Kerry also rejected a reporter’s suggestion that Netanyahu’s speech to the UN implied that the U.S. is being used by the Iranians. “I understood it to be a warning: ‘Don’t be played,’” Kerry said, adding that Rouhani deserves credit for talking to the U.S. after decades of animosity.

Over the last two years, the U.S. and the European Union have imposed dozens of penalties restricting Iran’s banking transactions, oil exports, shipping, trade and investment, driving Iranian oil output to the lowest level since 1990.

Iran, the second-biggest producer among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as recently as June 2012, just before U.S. and EU oil sanctions took effect, fell to sixth place last month, according to a Bloomberg survey of oil companies, producers and analysts. A quarter of Iranians aged 15 to 29 were jobless in the Iranian year ended in March, official figures show. The economic gloom became a central issue in Iran’s June election.

It was Israel that pressed for economic sanctions on Iran to test Iranian intentions, Kerry said.

Earlier this week, Obama said he assured Netanyahu that the U.S. will demand Iran back up conciliatory words with verifiable action, and that the threat of military force stands.

“It is absolutely clear that words are not sufficient,” Obama said following his White House meeting with Netanyahu on Sept. 30. “We take no options off the table, including military options.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Tokyo at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net