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Daybreak: Iran Deal Close

But Barak doesn’t like it, plus peace-talk status reports, military exercises, and more in the news

by
Jesse Oxfeld
October 23, 2009

• The United States and allies are close to an agreement in which Iran will ship its uranium to Russia for enrichment, not to weapons grade. But Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, issued a statement saying a must require “the cessation of enrichment by Iran, and not just the removal of the enriched material.” [NYT]
• One month after the Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas meeting in New York, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reported to the president yesterday that almost no progress has been made in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. [NYT]
• But U.S. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell said the talks also aren’t yet a failure. [Ynet]
• Major U.S.-Israeli joint military exercises began in the Middle East this week, but officials insist they are unrelated to current tensions in the region. [JPost]
• And Israeli Foreign Miniser Avigdor Lieberman asked U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to ensure the Goldstone report doesn’t advance further, calling the world organization “hypocrtical.” [Haaretz

Jesse Oxfeld, a former executive editor and publisher of Tablet Magazine, is a freelance theater critic. He was The New York Observer’s theater critic from 2009 to 2014.