Washington – The US State Department said Monday in a press conference that it disagrees with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s assertion during his UN speech on Monday that “ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree.”
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“Obviously, we’ve designated both as terrorist organizations, but ISIL poses a different threat to Western interests and to the United States,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. “And that’s just a fact.”
Later on in the speech, Netanyahu said that Iran is still a great threat to Israel’s existence. He also warned that Iran is not actually willing to give up nuclear weapons but rather just wants to get rid of the sanctions against them.
In response, Psaki said that the US would like Iran to reintegrate into the international community by showing that their nuclear program is peaceful.
“I can assure anyone that an agreement reached would not be based on a charm offensive or how that impacts us, but on the facts and the details,” she said. “And we’re not going to agree to a comprehensive agreement that doesn’t meet our standards and meet our threshold.”
She brought up other issues, such as Iran’s poor human rights record and terror funding as other factors straining the US relationship with Iran.
When asked at the press conference if she was worried about Iran wanting to use militant Shia Islam to “take over the world,” Psaki said she was more concerned with getting Iran to agree to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for an easing of economic sanctions.
“I can assure you…that obviously we’re focused on the here and now, and our effort is focused on these negotiations and the upcoming deadline in November.”
Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post
Of course they disagree……name one thing Obama accomplished in his foreign policy…….even Syria was a joke he sounded all big and mighty and when push came shove he needed the Russians to do his dirty work…. the world thinks hes a joke and most of the United States thinks hes a joke – if there is anyone person to blame on ISIS it’s Obama
That is the sad part. The world does not seem to understand that all radical Islam groups are one and the same. Some are just better at hiding their true intentions than others. They are fighting a war on terror and still don’t get how these terror organizations work and think. They are dealing with each new group as a separate threat and a new war. How can that succeed?
“Know thy enemy” is the first step to winning a war! Only Hashem can help us.
if US foreign policy would not be so sad it would be laughable.
Iran is laughing AT us,and so is every terrorist in the world,as we are no safer today than before 9/11
when someone says “I am going to destroy you”,you better start believing it instead of covering your eyes until it is too late.
Why isn’t Pakistan considered a threat?
To #1 - Your comments are misguided. The instability in Iraq resulted from the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, leading to the ouster of Saddam Hussein. This instability helped created ISIS and other terrorist groups in that region. When Saddam was in power, he kept those terrorist groups under control. As brutal a dictator as he was, there were no suicide bombings and very little sectarian violence when he was in power. The Iranians also feared him. His overthrow helped encourage the “Arab Spring” in other Arab countries, leading to further destabilization in that region. What was gained by invasion of Iraq? Absolutely nothing! It was the wrong war, in the wrong place. Evidently, the bungling bureaucrats in Washington learned nothing from the war in Vietnam, from 1964-1973, leading to the Communist takeover in 1975.
The world is sooo screwed up and nebach we have Obama in charge. He knows nothing except what his dumb Kerry tells him.
History will record his Presidency as the worst in history.
To Israel, Hamas and Iran are a far bigger threat than they are to the US, that’s a given.
Israel is allowed to state her own opinion, by whom she feels are a big threat to her citizens without the US disagreeing just like the US is allowed to state her opinion.
Some thing are better left unsaid. Speech is silver, silence is gold!
Someone needs to explain the concept of figurative language to Ms. Psaki.
Do we need separate “trees” for threats to the US (and nearly everyone else) and threats to Israel only?
“I can assure you…that obviously we’re focused on the here and now, and our effort is focused on these negotiations and the upcoming deadline in November.”
Netanyahu’s point still missed by State Department: focus on the “there” and “later”, when Iranian snarls will replace smiles. (HaShem yishmoreinu)
Only with that picture constantly in mind, will the “here and now” “negotiations” be conducted with the strongest absolute determination to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions dead in their tracks.
To #7 - Even George Herbert Walker Bush (#41 ) was against his son’s policy of invading Iraq, in 2003, as was his chief military advisor, General Brent Scowcroft. #41 made the right decision in 1991, when he stopped the First Gulf War, as he knew the instability which would have been brought to Iraq, if it had been invaded, at that time. History will show that #41 was correct, and #43 , his son, George W. Bush, erred with the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
To #10 - Obama did not make the decision to completely withdraw from Iraq in 2011. The latter decision was made by the Iraqi government in 2008, when George W. Bush was still President. The Prime Minister at the time, Al-Maliki would not give legal protection to US troops, and hence, there was no option for keeping US troops there. I agree with the decision to pull them out, as they were sitting ducks for the nine years that they were there. There was nothing was gained by that war; it was not worth the thousands of casualties, as stability, law and order, and justice, has not come to Iraq, to this day.
The difference btw hamas and isis is the difference btw one cat stuck in a tree to two cats stuck in a tree
To #17 -READ #15 , which addresses your brilliant analysis!
The truth will come out one day about the traitor in the white house