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Washington: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told US President Barack Obama the framework for an agreement to curb Iran's nuclear weapons program announced on Thursday threatens Israel's existence.
"This deal would legitimise Iran's nuclear program, bolster Iran's economy, and increase Iran's aggression and terror throughout the Middle East and beyond," Mr Netanyahu said after a phone conversation with Mr Obama.
Mr Netanyahu called on world powers to demand stricter terms in the framework agreement announced in Switzerland at the end of a year of negotiations.
The agreement's current form, "would not block Iran's path to the bomb. It would pave it," he said.
Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz said Israel would counter any Iranian nuclear threat through diplomacy and intelligence. But, he added, "if we have no choice, we have no choice. . . . The military option is on the table."
The Whitehouse said Mr Obama called Mr Netanyahu and told him, "while nothing is agreed until everything is, the framework represents significant progress towards a lasting, comprehensive solution that cuts off all of Iran's pathways to a bomb and verifiably ensures the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program going forward."
Mr Obama said the framework did not diminish American concerns about Iran's sponsorship of terrorism and threats towards Israel.
A detailed plan based on the agreement would see sanctions relating to Iran's nuclear program lifted should international observers confirm that Iran had met its commitments. Those relating to Iran's support for terrorism would remain in place.
The "broad understanding" would "cut off every pathway that Iran could take to develop a nuclear weapon" and would be enforced by the strictest international inspection regime ever negotiated, Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama has argued that history had demonstrated that Iran would continue its development program in isolation. As a result global powers would only become aware of crucial Iranian weapons advances when a diplomatic response was too late, and war would become more likely.
War can better be avoided by allowing Iran to maintain a peaceful nuclear program under international scrutiny, the Obama administration has maintained.
"It's no secret that the Israeli prime minister and I don't agree about whether the United States should move forward with a peaceful resolution to the Iranian issue," Mr Obama said. "If in fact Prime Minister Netanyahu is looking for the most effective way to ensure Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon, this is the best option."
Though Mr Obama says the goal of any agreement is to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, the true intent is more nuanced than that.
The negotiations in Switzerland have been built around what is known as "breakout time" – the amount of time Iran would need to build a weapon should it chose to break agreements, expel monitors and resume development.
Analysts believe Iran's current breakout time to be two or thee months, said Secretary of State John Kerry, who has led international negotiations.
This agreement would extend that period to a year if it comes to fruition.
The timeline is critical. A year would give the international community time to increase diplomatic pressure, or in a worst-case scenario, build a coalition for war.
"Throughout history, diplomacy has been necessary to prevent wars and to define international boundaries, to design institutions and to develop global norms," said Mr Obama, in comments apparently directed to Republican opponents of the talks. "Simply demanding that Iran capitulate makes a nice sound bite, but it's not a policy.
"The true measure of this understanding is not whether it meets all the desires of one side at the expense of the other. The test is whether or not it will leave the world safer or more secure than it would be without this agreement.
"And there can be no question that the comprehensive plan that we are moving toward will more than pass that test."
Israel and many Congressional Republicans argue it is naïve to believe that Iran would abide by its commitments, as has been evidenced by its support for international terrorism.
They believe that Iran has been forced to the negotiating table due to the power of American-led international sanctions, and that in making concessions to Iran negotiators have squandered the upper hand.
In recent months Republicans have stepped-up their efforts to derail the talks, with the party's leadership inviting Mr Netanyahu to address a joint sitting of Congress, and a group of senators signing a letter to Iranian leadership saying any agreement signed by the Obama administration might be overturned at the end of the president's term.
Despite those controversial actions, so far the Republican leadership's response has been moderate, with House Speaker John Boehner issuing a statement demanding Congress be allowed to review the detail of an agreement before sanctions were lifted.
Karim Sadjadpour, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, warned the deal presented Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei with a dilemma: "either crush the spirits of tens of millions of euphoric Iranians or demoralise his hardline base".
Australia's Foreign Minister Julia Bishop will visit Iran on April 18. She will discuss the nuclear issue "and other important bilateral and regional issues with Foreign Minister Zarif and other Iranian leaders".
