Iran deal shows way to Middle East peace

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/05/iran-deal-shows-way-to-middle-east-peace

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Israel and the Republicans in the US Congress will be doing their utmost to prevent the outline agreement with Iran from becoming a done deal (Obama scrambles to curb revolt on Capitol Hill over Iranian deal, 4 April). Binyamin Netanyahu recently asked how Israel could possibly trust an Iran which had been shown to be running a secret nuclear research plant. Israel, of course, already has its own arsenal of nuclear weapons – also developed in secret – and still not officially acknowledged by the Israeli government. It also has very strong conventional forces, backed materially and diplomatically by the US.

The result has been an Israel which has not made any serious attempt to negotiate its way through difficulties with its neighbours, but has instead decided that it can achieve its objectives by force of arms. There may be other factors which have encouraged the participants in the Iran nuclear talks to come to an agreement, but the patience and persistence shown by all parties should provide a lesson to Israel and its US friends on how to resolve differences without the destruction that has been brought upon so many countries in the Middle East in recent years. Ian StrachanPerth

• In extensive coverage of the nuclear deal reached with Iran (The winter is over: relieved Iranians hail nuclear deal, 3 April), you fail to even mention the contribution made by the European parties to this process. You record the negotiation as if it were all a question of US-Iranian deal-making with a bit of Russia thrown in. However, it would seem that the EU, and former foreign affairs representative Catherine Ashton in particular, played a key part, as was acknowledged last year by secretary of state John Kerry. Tim WhalleyLondon