Israel's Mike Oren: Details of Iran Deal Must Be Shared

Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, who is under fire for a Foreign Policy article he wrote about how President Barack Obama's interactions with Muslims growing up have shaped his world view, called Tuesday on the United States to share details of its pending agreement with Iran on its nuclear capabilities.

"If I was a negotiator, I wouldn't sign it," Oren told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program about the continuing talks. "The Iranians have learned over the years that the longer they wait, the better deal they will get."

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Oren, who was Israel's ambassador to the U.S. from 2009 to 2013, said he agrees with Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who recommended Monday holding on to the interim agreement with Iran until a solid deal can be hammered out. Oren added that even if there may not be a deal quite yet, "we can ramp up sanctions."

In the Foreign Policy article, Oren had written that "Obama's attitudes toward Islam clearly stem from his personal interactions with Muslims. These were described in depth in his candid memoir, 'Dreams from My Father,'" wrote Oren. "Obama wrote passionately of the Kenyan villages where, after many years of dislocation, he felt most at home and of his childhood experiences in Indonesia."

Further, he wrote that he could "imagine how a child raised by a Christian mother might see himself as a natural bridge between her two Muslim husbands. I could also speculate how that child's abandonment by those men could lead him, many years later, to seek acceptance by their co-religionists."

Oren did not comment on the Foreign Policy article, but he did talk about another article, in The Wall Street Journal last week, where he accused Obama of abandoning the core principles of Israel's alliance with the United States and promoting "an agenda of championing the Palestinian cause and achieving a nuclear accord with Iran."

"I own up to it, fully," said Oren on Tuesday, telling MSNBC that the U.S. alliance [that] started in the Reagan era was based on the premise of "no surprises."

"If you make a major policy statement on the Middle East, the United States, Israel gets an advanced copy," Oren said. "We get a chance to look at it."

And as far as the deal with Iran, it "has to be tied not just to the infrastructure," in which "facilities are dismantled, but also to Iranian behavior."

Iran, said Oren, "is the largest sponsor of state terror."

"Iran is declaring ultimately to destroy my country, kill 8 million of my countrymen. So you would think a nuclear program should get attached to Iranian behavior and conditioned to Iranian behavior in some very fundamental way."

Further, a deal must take into account what Iran gains if all sanctions are lifted, said Oren, who said the estimated $50 billion that comes in through sanctions relief won't be spent on infrastructure, as Iran is "funding terrorism around the world."

"They are complicit in the murder of 200,000 Syrians," said Oren. "They are operating in South America. They will use this. We know they are already embarking on a major upgrade for their terrorist problem sites around the world. That's where this $50 billion has got to go.

"You got to know this. It has to be coming to a neighborhood near you. Believe me, it's a serious threat to the United States as well."

Oren, the author of the new bestseller "Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide," said Tuesday his book goes through and distinguishes mistakes made on both sides of the issue.

Further, Oren said that in the past, disagreements with former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were kept behind closed doors, while Obama "said openly he was going to put daylight between Israel and the United States."

But allowing Israel to have advance viewing of the Iranian agreement should be made, said Oren, as Israel remains a close ally of the United States and its "fundamental security depends on an American statement."

"I want it to come out precisely because of the Iranian issue, the essence of trust" that's at question, said Oren. "The president is saying, 'trust me, I got your back.' Now my country's security, beliefs, people are at stake here. The issue of trust is crucial."

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