Embassy Row: Iran buying time

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren accused Iran of deceiving the West by opening new talks about its suspected nuclear weapons program, as he addressed a major Jewish conference in Washington on Sunday.

Iran, which has threatened to destroy Israel, is using the latest round of talks to advance its enrichment of nuclear material, he told the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

“Iran is stalling the negotiations, continuing to enrich uranium as talks continue,” Mr. Oren said.

He complained that “diplomacy hasn’t worked and sanctions haven’t stopped” Iran from pursuing its suspected goal of developing a nuclear missile that could hit targets throughout the Middle East, with a special aim of striking the Jewish state.

Iran last week held talks with representatives of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States for the first time in eight months. The only outcome was an agreement to meet again.

Elliot Abrams, a foreign policy and national security adviser under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, endorsed Mr. Oren’s position when he addressed the conference.

“We seem to be negotiating with ourselves,” he said.

Mr. Oren also warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against mending relations with Hamas, the pro-Iranian Palestinian terrorist group that forced Mr. Abbas out of the Gaza Strip in 2007. He said that reconciliation would be a “game changer” in the Israeli government’s attempt to reopen peace talks with Mr. Abbas‘ organization, which controls parts of the West Bank.

Mr. Oren called on Mr. Abbas to match steps taken by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which, he said, includes recognition of a future Palestinian state and a freeze on settlements on disputed land in the West Bank.

Only seeking justice

The relatives of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing say they are still seeking justice, not more money, from the Libyan government, which admitted responsibility for the terrorist attack that killed 270 people.

The Victims of Pan Am Flight 103 wrote Friday to Libyan Ambassador Ali Suleiman Aujali to distance the group from a British news report that quoted Libyan Justice Minister Salah al-Marghani, who complained about British and U.S. requests to reopen the investigation into the bombing of the U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, on Dec. 21, 1988.

“If they want to reopen the case they have to promise not to ask for more compensation,” he told The London Daily Telegraph.

Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi paid the families more than $2 billion in 2003. Gadhafi was overthrown and killed about eight years later.

Frank Duggan, president of the Pan Am relatives group, told the ambassador that the families want no more money.

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