Just when there was hope that a breakthrough in US-Iran relations could be achieved, Israel decided to create difficulties. The tone was set by the new Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who described an Iran armed with nuclear weapons as the biggest threat to Israel’s existence. He appealed to the US to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. What was the American reaction? Not very helpful, considering that the US has a stake in normalising ties with Tehran.

In fact, Israeli fears were practically vindicated when Centcom chief Gen David Petraeus, testifying before a US Senate committee, said that he did not rule out a pre-emptive Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as Tehran had ‘failed to provide the assurances and transparency necessary’ for international verification of its programme.

The Obama administration realises that the success of its policies in Afghanistan and Iraq lies in taking Iran on board. Hence the recent overtures. But the US still appears reluctant to compromise its special relationship with a bellicose Israel in the larger interest of America’s Middle East policy. This approach could eventually put its diplomacy with Iran on the rocks.

Needless to say the American — as well as Israeli — stance on Iran’s nuclear programme is seriously flawed. America’s own intelligence agencies have confirmed that Iran is not on the road to bomb-making and lacks a stockpile of sufficiently enriched uranium needed to manufacture nuclear bombs. The International Atomic Energy Agency has also not found any conclusive evidence of Iran’s nuclear programme being designed for military purposes.

If Israel, a nuclear-weapons state, still continues to harp on the ‘danger’ Iran poses, it only creates doubts about its own credibility and good faith. If wars and cross-border military action were to be justified under international law on flimsy grounds such as paranoid fears or a policy of pre-emption when no violation of the law has actually taken place, the entire global system would go haywire.

No doubt nuclear arms do pose a risk to mankind. But the problem needs to be addressed rationally and equitably so that the world is not divided into nuclear haves and have-nots. At the moment America will have to learn to cultivate one-to-one ties with key actors in the Middle East region. It has taken a wise step by extending an olive branch to Iran. By negotiating directly with Tehran, the White House could effectively neutralise the threats it perceives from Iran in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iraq and Gaza.