GENEVA - In two weeks, the leaders of Israel and Italy, along with teams of their ministers, will meet for the fourth inter-governmental meeting between the countries in recent years. Italian fighter jets are participating this week in the joint "Blue Flag" exercise in the skies over the Negev Desert.
Buoyed by burgeoning commercial and security ties, relations between Jerusalem and Rome have rarely, if ever, been better. And yet, on his way to the nuclear talks in Geneva Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stopped off in Rome to meet his Italian counterpart, Emma Bonino, and discuss a wide range of regional issues. Following the meeting, Iranian sources said that Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta will be visiting Tehran. Just like that, Iran's international isolation has evaporated and not even Israel's closest allies are staying away.

The latest friend of Israel to join in was David Cameron, who on Wednesday night initiated the first phone discussion between a British prime minister and an Iranian president in over a decade. Cameron ostensibly called Hassan Rouhani to offer his condolences following the massive double-suicide attack outside the Iranian embassy in Beirut.

The two leaders also talked about the upcoming Geneva negotiations and discussed the need to for a "political solution" to end the bloody Syrian civil war.

The mention of Syria in the Cameron-Rouhani conversation is particularly noteworthy since, until very recently, the official British position was that Iran, as the main backer, financier and armorer of the Assad regime, both directly and through Hezbollah, must not be allowed to take part in any discussions over the future of Syria. Indeed, in the chorus of condemnation from western capitals over the attack on Iran's embassy, no mention was made of the fact that the diplomatic mission is also the nerve-center of the Iranian-Hezbollah alliance.

Britain's softening towards Iran, which also took the form of the appointment of a new Charges d’Affaires last week, exactly two years after a regime-sanctioned mob stormed the British embassy in Tehran, is particularly significant. In recent years, under the previous prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, as well as under Cameron, Britain has been seen as the staunchest supporter of stiff sanctions against Iran, at times even more than the United States.

London's location at the center of the world's banking and insurance networks has allowed the British government to exert immense economic pressure on Tehran, often reaching beyond the official mandate of sanctions. Behind the scenes, British ministers have been discouraging financial institution in the City of London to cut off ties with Iran. Senior Israeli officials have repeatedly praised the British for the close cooperation between the countries on every level, including major exchanges of intelligence, towards isolating and pressuring Iran.

While there is no indication as of yet that Britain is about to reduce the sanctions and economic pressure, beyond whatever concessions are included in an interim agreement that may be signed this week in Geneva, both British and Israeli officials acknowledge there is a "change of tune" in London regarding Iran.

This is partly due to the political setback suffered by Cameron three months ago when the British parliament voted against a British strike on Syria in retaliation to the use of chemical weapons on civilians. Following that humiliating defeat, the British seem to have taken a backseat in Middle East affairs and adopted a much more conciliatory attitude. This has manifested in much less eagerness than before to help the Syrian rebels, allowing the European Union to lead on issues such as Israeli settlements in the West Bank and ceding to the French the role of the toughest European power on Iran.

But even France, which leads the charge in the last round of talks in Geneva, effectively preventing the signing of an interim agreement dubbed by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius as a "fools' deal," will not stay out for long. One Israeli diplomat expressed the prevailing opinion that despite the great fuss made of President Francois Hollande during his visit this week to Israel, "France will fall in line with the international consensus this round in Geneva and agree to an amended deal."

A British diplomat said last week that "basically it is the Americans who are leading. Once they are talking with the Iranians, then we all are." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have realized this and is now making overtures to the two members of the P5+1 group who are not in the American camp, Russia and China.

On his plane to Moscow for meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu took journalists. In recent years Netanyahu and his predecessor Ehud Olmert flew to meet the Russian leadership at least once a year, but these visits were always low-key and without media presence.

This week Netanyahu wants to make a big deal out of his relationship with Putin. And while the decision not to allow Israeli intelligence expert Uzi Shaya to fly to New York and testify in the Bank of China case was expected, it seems hardly surprising that it was leaked to the press again this week, on the eve of the nuclear talks to which China is also party.

As the international community is re-engaging with Iran, Netanyahu is scrambling to regain hold of the changing diplomatic landscape.

By Haaretz 

 

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