Pyotr Lyukimson , Israel, exclusively to VK
While foreign media discuss Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s recent statement on the recognition of the Holocaust and on Tehran's willingness to come within three months to an agreement with the West over Iran's nuclear program, Israel feels extreme skepticism about the statements of the Iranian leader.
Israeli experts immediately drew attention to two points unnoticed by the Western media. The first one is that, even according to the translation of Rouhani’s interview to BBC, Rouhani has not spoken about the full recognition of the Holocaust (recognized by the entire international community , including, of course, Germany ). He only said that he leaves the matter to the historians, but if the Nazis in fact committed such crimes against the Jews, they deserve condemnation.
The second point is that, immediately after the publication of the interview, the Iranian news agency "Fars" reported that the president of Iran in general did not say anything like this, and the translators simply falsified his words. The broadcaster in response stated that the translator for the interview was chosen by the Iranian side, and they are confident in his skills.
Due to the ambiguity of the situation arising (or perhaps for other reasons) Israel has officially decided not to respond to Rouhani’s statement about the Holocaust but a senior official of the office of the Prime Minister of Israel in an interview to VK said that "it is, no doubt, a brilliant propaganda demarche of the Iranian leader". Commenting on these words in more details, he said the following: "When the former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denied the Holocaust, this benefited Israel. Such statements unequivocally testified that his regime in its fanaticism and hatred of the Jewish state came to the point of absurdity, and there is nothing to discuss. Hassan Rouhani is much smarter and therefore more dangerous to Israel than his predecessor. He demonstrates an externally balanced and sober position that urges Western politicians that constructive dialogue with Iran is supposedly possible. He showed that he perfectly knows how to work with the leading Western media and through them to influence public opinion. He skillfully turned in his speech at the Assembly from Iran to Israel. All this makes one wonder involuntarily about how Israel should respond to the new tactics of the Iranian government".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Rouhani’s speech atthe UN General Assembly "cynical and hypocritical". According to him, Rouhani is deliberately stalling for time and trying to mislead the world public by his peacekeeping statements. "Rouhani spoke about human rights at a time when the Iranian forces are involved in the massacre of the civilian population in Syria. He condemned the terror, while the current Iranian regime inspires terror in various parts of the world . Despite the fact that Rouhani called nuclear weapons contrary to the "Iranian morality", the last IAEA report clearly indicates that Iran's nuclear program has military potential. In his speech there were no specific proposals regarding the rejection of nuclear weapons and no obligation to accept the UN resolution on the issue”, Netanyahu said.
At the time of Rouhani’s speech at the General Assembly special minister for intelligence and strategy Yuval Steinitz and Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Proshor left the hall. Some observers have questioned the usefulness of this "childish step ", as they called it, and said that perhaps the Israeli delegation should have stayed in the hall and listened to the Iranian leader - at least in order to better know the position of the enemy. In response to this criticism, Netanyahu said he considers the act to be entirely correct, as if they left in the room, this would legitimize the Iranian regime which still does not recognize Israel's right to exist.
A different assessment of Rouhani’s speech was given by leading Israeli military and political analyst Ron Ben- Yishai. According to him, it suggests that international sanctions against Iran are working , and Tehran is clearly concerned about them . "The main task of Rouhani “, Ron Ben- Yishai said, “ is to soften the sanctions , and to this end he is ready to recognize the Holocaust , to soften anti-Israeli rhetoric and to express willingness to dialogue. However, his speech was extremely vague. He insists on the recognition of Iran's right to conduct uranium enrichment, but he does not say what quantity of enriched uranium is in question and what the level to which Iran intends to enrich it is".
Other leading Israeli experts in an interview with VK admitted that they had not yet had time to become familiar with the full range of materials of the General Assembly (a three-week period of the Jewish holidays ended in Israel just last night) and to form an opinion about the speech of Hassan Rouhani . At the same time, some of them drew attention to the fact that for the first time since the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian president said the word "Israel" - instead of the usual euphemisms for the Iranians, " the Zionist enemy " and " Zionists". According to them, this is in itself a positive thing , perhaps foreshadowing some changes in the relationship of Iran with the West in general and Israel in particular.
