Jewish Leaders Get White House Briefing Amid Tensions on Iran Nuclear Policy

Here?s the Update: Secretary of State John Kerry and other top officials briefed Jewish leaders on the nuclear standoff with Iran. Image by getty images
The White House and Jewish leaders described a National Security Council briefing on Iran as “constructive” and pledged to continue to consult on the issue.
“Leaders of several Jewish organizations participated in an off-the-record discussion with senior Administration officials about issues of the highest priority for the U.S., for our community and for America’s allies, halting Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” said a statement from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued late Tuesday evening.
“We had a constructive and open exchange and agreed to continue the consultation to enhance the prospect of achieving a transparent and effective diplomatic resolution,” it said. “We welcome the reaffirmation of the President’s commitment to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear capability and that all options remain viable to assure that end.”
The meeting was called Tuesday on short notice as the Obama and Netanyahu governments appear to be parting ways on Iran strategy.
Netanyahu has derided what seems to be the emerging U.S. strategy of allowing Iran to maintain a low level of uranium enrichment as part of a final deal to relieve sanctions aimed at stopping Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Additionally, Netanyahu, along with a number of major Jewish organizations, back enhanced Iran sanctions.
The Jewish groups back lawmakers in Congress who want to advance such sanctions as soon as possible.
The Obama administration is pressing Congress to delay considering such sanctions until after the next round of talks between Iran and major world powers over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, due to take place in November.
Reuters reported Tuesday that top officials, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, were delivering secret briefings to top U.S. senators to persuade them to delay the new sanctions.
A corresponding statement from Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, suggested that the timing of the meeting with the Jewish leaders was related to the effort to facilitate the next round of talks with Iran.
“Following on the recent P5+1 talks with Iran, and in advance of the next round of talks November 7-8, Senior Administration Officials today briefed the leaders of several Jewish organizations on our progress,” Meehan said, referring to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain – plus Germany.
“The administration officials made clear that the United States will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that our preference is to resolve the issue peacefully through diplomacy,” Meehan said. “The meeting was constructive and we look forward to continuing these discussions going forward.”
According to the Al-Monitor news site, the administration briefers were National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Deputy National Security Advisors Antony Blinken and Ben Rhodes.
In addition to the Presidents’ Conference, groups represented at the meeting included the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.