Israel's Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren and other politicians and diplomats addressed over 10,000 people at the opening of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) annual policy conference in Washington D.C. on Sunday. In his speech, Oren addressed one of the main issues on everybody's mind: while the U.S. and Israel see eye-to-eye on dealing with the Iranian nuclear program, they are still having major differences. "Diplomacy hasn't worked and the sanctions have not halted Iran's nuclear program," Oren said. He also said there was only a small window for diplomacy to work. "Imagine if Iran had that nuclear weapon, what is the price of inaction-" Dennis Ross, a former special aide to President Barack Obama's administration on the Middle East and a senior official in the state department, also spoke at the opening session. Ross did not say that talks between Tehran and the world powers had failed. He said that during Obama's upcoming visit to the region, he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "will try to reach a better understanding of when the preventive efforts can be considered failed, and when the use of force is inevitable." Ross also said there is "no rift between the two sides." Elliot Abrams, a former member of President George W. Bush's administration and a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, was more critical. "It's like conducting negotiations with ourselves. There is no progress. Khamenei, Iran's ayatollah, is in fantastic condition we are not." Defense Minister Ehud Barak also spoke on Sunday at the AIPAC conference, saying that Iran remains the most dire threat facing Israel in the region. Barak said he did not believe diplomacy would deter the ayatollahs from their pursuit of nuclear weapons capability. "Frankly, while exhausting all diplomatic means is understandable, I do not believe it will lead to a moment of truth where the ayatollahs will give up their nuclear aspirations," he said. "Therefore, all options must remain on the table." Barak, similar to Oren, said he was concerned that the repercussions of failure included a dangerous arms race. Iranian media reported on Sunday that the Islamic republic was building around 3,000 new advanced enrichment centrifuges, a development that could accelerate the nuclear project. The prospect of unilateral Israeli strikes, worries Washington, as does the likely wide-ranging reprisals by Iran and its regional allies. The U.S. wants to pursue diplomacy because it prevents costly military commitments abroad.
