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QUESTION: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had some pretty harsh commentary the last couple of days at the UN and in an NBC interview about the prospect for a U.S. rapprochement with Iran, essentially saying that you all are being played for suckers. What is your response? And is it a foregone conclusion that a better U.S. relationship with Iran comes at the expense of a U.S. relationship with Israel?

And for Ministers Kishida and Onodero, could you – would you like to see a rollback of the sanctions on Iran so that Japan could again scale up its oil imports? Thank you.

SECRETARY HAGEL:

... I understand Israel’s concern. I speak often with Defense Minister Yaalon of Israel. Our military-to-military relationship is very close, very important. So I don’t minimize their concerns.

Second, I also think that there may be an opportunity, which Secretary Kerry will address in more detail, with a possibility of opening a dialogue and engaging. Engagement is not appeasement. It’s not surrender. It’s not negotiation. But I think we are wise, if the Iranians have reached out – which they have – to, in a very clear-eyed way – and we are – test their actions with their words.

I have never believed that foreign policy is a zero-sum game. We all have security common interests. And the challenge is the threats that face the world today are global. They’re not nation-to-nation, they’re not regional, but they’re global. And aren’t we wiser if we can find ways to resolve disputes, recognizing danger, being very clear-eyed, keeping the strongest military in the world – which we have – to protect our interests along with our allies and strong alliances, aren’t we wiser to pursue engagement?

SECRETARY KERRY:

... Let me be crystal clear: Nothing with respect to the security of Israel will be allowed to come between the relationship between the United States and Israel. We are firmly determined that Israel’s security remains paramount, is paramount, is at the centerpiece of part of our relationship – not all of it, part of it, there’s a lot more to the relationship.

But I want to be clear that I did not interpret Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments as suggesting that we are being played somehow for suckers. I understood it to be a warning, don’t be played. And I can assure the Prime Minister, as I would assure all the people of Israel and everybody in the world, and particularly Iranians, there is nothing here that is going to be taken at face value, and we’ve made that clear. The President has said and I have said that it’s not words that will make a difference, it’s actions. And the actions clearly are going to have to be sufficient that the world will understand that not only will they not be able to be on the road to get a weapon, but there’s no ability to suddenly break out and achieve that.

Now, Israel itself suggested that we engage with sanctions. Israel was a supporter of these sanctions, because Israel understands that there was a need to put to test the question of whether or not this program can be stopped by peaceful means, by agreement. And we have an obligation – it would be diplomatic malpractice of the worst order not to examine every possibility of whether or not you can achieve that before you ask people to take military action or do what you have to do in order to prevent something from happening. And I think that people understand that. You have to exhaust the remedies that are available to you before you ratchet up to a next tier of remedies that may have much more dramatic consequences.

So we are going to look very, very carefully at this. We hope it could work, because we think the world will be better off, the Middle East would be better off, Iran would be better off, Israel would be better off, if there is a way to achieve a verified certainty to the elimination of a nuclear program for weapons purposes in Iran. And the President has made it clear that Iran can have a peaceful nuclear program.

A country that genuinely wants to have a peaceful program does not have difficulty proving that it is, in fact, peaceful. So this ought to be able to be done. And the test we face now over these next weeks and months – not a long period of time, mind you, over a short period of time – is determine whether or not that is, in fact, what Iran intends. If they do intend it to be peaceful, I believe there’s a way to get there. But the question is whether or not we find a willingness in all parties to achieve that goal.

I think that President Rouhani deserves credit for reaching out and offering this. And (inaudible) Minister Zarif likewise has indicated they’re ready to, and we know that there are people in Iran who don’t believe that. We know there are people who are pushing back, who want to go a different road, a far more dangerous road. So our hope is that we can find a way forward.

But I assume Prime Minister Netanyahu and the people of Israel that nothing that we do is going to be based on trust; it’s going to be based on a series of steps that guarantee to all of us that we have certainty about what is happening. And if that can’t be achieved, as I have said to the Prime Minister, as the President has said to the Prime Minster, no deal is better than a bad deal, because a bad deal could put you in a worse predicament.

MINISTER KISHIDA:

... We have had the dialogue and the pressure with this policy. We have been collaborating with the other – the United States and other countries.

On the other hand, with Iran we have had a special relationship historically. Also this time in Iran we have had the President Rouhani, so a new administration started in Iran. So given this, last week in the – on the occasion of the UN General Assembly, I visited New York, and in New York the new Foreign Minister of Iran and I held a Japan-Iran foreign ministers meeting. On that occasion, to the Iranian Foreign Minister, I said it is important to show flexibility. Dialogue is important to show flexibility. I so urged him to be flexible.

So I would like to focus on my eyes to the response from Iran. At any rate, I would like to collaborate with the United States.

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