Netanyahu: Diplomacy must be coupled with credible military threat

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that for diplomacy to have a chance to work it must be coupled with a credible military threat. He spoke in Jerusalem Sunday at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry after he received a briefing on the chemical agreement Kerry reached with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva Saturday. The US Secretary said he agreed that this agreement – to strip Syria of all its chemical weapons – must be backed up by a military option, and this has been made clear by President Barack Obama.

Kerry found Israel deeply concerned by a sense that the Obama administration has sold out the Syrian rebels and saved Bashar Assad in a deal with Moscow. No one in Jerusalem trusts Assad’s pledge to give up his chemical weapons, certain he will surrender no more than a portion to international control and conceal the rest.