Obama Rejects Demand for Iran to Recognize Israel

President Barack Obama has rejected a call by Israel for any nuclear agreement with Iran to be conditional on Tehran’s recognition of the Jewish state’s right to exist, branding it a “fundamental misjudgement.”

Speaking after Israel proposed its own terms for the accord, Obama told US radio network NPR Monday that demands for Iran to recognize the country go beyond the scope of the agreement.

“The notion that we would condition Iran not getting nuclear weapons in a verifiable deal on Iran recognising Israel, is really akin to saying that we won’t sign a deal unless the nature of the Iranian regime completely transforms,” he said in a drive to sell the deal to a hostile Congress.

“And that is, I think, a fundamental misjudgement.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu demanded Sunday that Iranian recognition of the Jewish state’s right to exist be written into the agreement.