Israel believes that despite major differences between Iran and Western powers over reviving the 2015 deal, the nuclear deal has not been completely canceled, according to the newspaper.Ha’aretzAbout an Israeli diplomat.
On Saturday, Germany, France and Britain issued a joint statement questioning Iran’s intentions regarding the deal and urging it to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency in opening investigations.
However, the Israeli diplomat said he believed the revival of the nuclear deal might come after the US midterm elections scheduled for November.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid arrived in Germany to discuss the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran, in which Germany is participating.
On his trip to Berlin, Lapid will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annallina Birbock and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, while Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is expected to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Monday, and brief the Security Council on all From the Iranian issue and the Ibrahim agreements.
“We must act together against the growing threats that Iran will become a nuclear state,” Lapid said at a joint press conference with Schulz in Berlin, on Monday. Lapid described the return to the nuclear agreement with the current conditions as a mistake.
For his part, Schulz said: “We regret that Iran has not yet responded positively to the nuclear talks,” explaining that the European side made proposals, “there is no reason for Iran not to agree to them.”
According to Haaretz, Israel is mainly working behind the scenes with US senators and members of Congress in an attempt to persuade them to support its positions in not striking a deal with Iran.
“We think there is a better deal than this,” the diplomat said, adding that if the signing of the agreement was delayed beyond midterm, opponents of the agreement might be able to achieve a majority in Congress and make it more difficult for the US administration to approve it.
He pointed out that “it is too early to know what will happen in the midterm elections.”
Israel opposes the nuclear agreement signed in 2015 and in 2018 witnessed the withdrawal of former US President Donald Trump from it before he re-imposed severe sanctions on Iran.
short term advantages
While intelligence reports indicate that Iran’s efforts to enrich uranium may allow it to reach an amount sufficient for one nuclear bomb within a few weeks, Israel believes that Iran does not want to proceed to this stage and that it does not have the means to manufacture and use a nuclear bomb.
The diplomat said that although Iran is weeks away from the amount of uranium needed to produce a nuclear bomb, it “lacks a lot to reach a nuclear weapon.”
He explained that “Iran wants economic relief” to lift sanctions and close open investigations against it.
He continued, “There must be a real threat against Iran that prevents it from achieving a nuclear breakthrough and urges it to negotiate a better agreement.” He said Iran should be forced to sign an agreement.
Iran and the powers still affiliated with the agreement, under the coordination of the European Union and the indirect participation of the United States, began discussions to revive it in April 2021, which were initially suspended in June.
After its resumption in November of the same year, it was suspended again in mid-March 2022, with points of disagreement remaining between Washington and Tehran, despite significant progress being made.
In early August, talks resumed in Vienna again. And the European Union announced on the eighth of it, that it presented to the two main parties a formula for a “final” settlement. Tehran submitted its proposals to the European Union on the text, and Washington responded to them on the 24th of the same month.
On the first of September, the United States confirmed that it had received a new Iranian response, considering it, according to a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry, that it was “not constructive.”
The Israeli diplomat spoke about the status of the negotiations on the nuclear deal, saying that the benefits of the deal are short-term and that the money and legitimacy that Iran will get later will become an issue. The terms of the original deal expire in 2030.
He added that in order not to have to go back to negotiations again, the validity of the clauses should be extended.
A march capable of striking Israel
In a related context, Iran said, on Monday, that it is ready to continue cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency of the United Nations, while it revealed a drone capable of “hitting major cities in Israel,” as it claimed.
Israel had threatened to attack Iranian nuclear sites if diplomacy failed to save the 2015 nuclear deal
After European powers expressed frustration with Tehran’s intentions to save the deal, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani called on the agency “not to give in to Israel’s pressure” over Tehran’s nuclear activities.
The agency’s board of governors meets on Monday, three months after adopting a resolution urging Iran to provide credible answers in the agency’s investigations into traces of uranium found at three sites in Iran.
“Iran declares its constructive cooperation with the agency as an obligation … and while there are obligations on Iran, it also has rights,” Kanaani said in a televised press conference.
He added, “It is natural for Iran to expect constructive measures from the International Atomic Energy Agency and members of its Board of Governors.”
Israel, widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has vowed not to allow Iran to acquire atomic weapons. Iran completely denies it is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, and says its nuclear program is peaceful.
The semi-official Mehr news agency quoted the commander of Iran’s ground forces, Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari, as saying that the country had developed a long-range suicide drone “designed to strike Tel Aviv and Haifa in Israel.”
The head of the Israeli Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad), David Barnea, warned religious leaders in Iran not to “resort to force against Israel or the Israelis.”
“The high leadership in Iran must realize that Iran or its proxies resort to force against Israel or the Israelis will be met with a painful response against those responsible (for that) on Iranian soil,” Parnia said in a speech at Richman University near Tel Aviv, on Monday.
“This will happen in Tehran, in Kermanshah and in Isfahan,” he added, referring to the Iranian regions where the authorities monitored sabotage operations against facilities or people linked to the country’s military or nuclear programs.