A particularly awkward moment occurred when Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni met July 16 with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on his brief visit to Israel. Herzog and Livni, leaders of the leading opposition faction in the Knesset, the Zionist Camp, bombarded Hammond with a series of complaints and questions regarding the various cracks they believe exist in the agreement between Iran and world powers, and the deal's many shortcomings.
Hammond provided them with detailed answers. Then the name of Gen. Qasem Soleimani popped up. Soleimani heads the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which operates outside Iran in order to “spread the word” of the Islamic Revolution. Israel views the Quds Force as Iran’s main tool for fomenting terror. Herzog asked how it was possible that the world powers are taking Soleimani off the sanctions list, referring to his inclusion on a list of 32 top Iranians freed of international curbs under the terms of the agreement. Inclusion of Soleimani's name on the list appended to the agreement stunned many in Israel.
Hammond said that it was not the same Soleimani. Herzog and Livni couldn’t believe their ears. Didn't the British foreign secretary know that the agreement he signed with Iran includes the lifting of sanctions from the commander of the Quds Force? At the Vienna news conference that followed the signing of the nuclear agreement July 14, Secretary of State John Kerry ignored the same question, while Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denied it was the same Soleimani.
According to Herzog, a question put to the Americans revealed that it is indeed the same Soleimani. US officials argued in their defense that while Soleimani would be taken off an international sanctions list, his name remains on a US sanctions list, and on all other US blacklists. Israel, however, could not find any solace in this clarification. For Israel, the free pass granted to Iran’s top terrorism fomenter symbolizes, more than anything else, the naivete of the historic agreement between Iran and the world powers, and the danger it poses.
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