(Jerusalem) Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday that an agreement on the Iranian nuclear file would be “imminent”, saying he feared that it would be “more fragile” than the precedent reached in 2015.
Posted at 11:55 a.m.
Negotiations on the Iranian nuclear power resumed at the end of November in Vienna after a long break, with the aim of bringing the United States back into the fold of the 2015 agreement supposed to prevent Tehran from acquiring the atomic bomb, an intention that has always denied the Islamic Republic.
The United States left the agreement in 2018 under President Donald Trump, reinstating its sanctions in the process. In response, Iran largely freed itself from the restrictions it had agreed to impose on its nuclear activities.
An ally of the United States and sworn enemy of Iran, Israel considers Tehran and its nuclear program a threat to its security and that of the Middle East.
“A new agreement would be imminent […] It would be more fragile than the previous one,” Bennett said Sunday ahead of the weekly government meeting in Jerusalem.
Israel is preparing “for the day after [accord] at all levels,” he added.
“Iranian terrorism endangers us and other countries in the region […] The State of Israel prepares for the day after [la conclusion de l’accord] to keep its citizens safe on our own,” Mr. Bennett added.
For his part, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Sunday at a security conference in Munich, Germany, that “all measures must be taken to ensure that Iran can never become a State at the nuclear threshold”.
“Guarantees”
“The world must never allow it and Israel will never allow it,” added Gantz, whose country is considered by experts to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East.
The 2015 agreement allowed the lifting of international economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for strict limits on its nuclear program supposed to prevent it from acquiring the atomic bomb.
The Vienna negotiations are taking place between the Iranians and the other signatory countries of the agreement (Germany, China, France, United Kingdom and Russia), with the indirect participation of the Americans.
Iranian deputies on their side called on their government on Sunday to obtain “guarantees” from the Western countries participating in the negotiations, according to the official Irna news agency.
In a statement addressed to President Ebrahim Raisi, the signatories ask the “three European countries and the United States” for the assurance that they will not initiate a withdrawal procedure and that they will not reinstate sanctions against Iran if Tehran were to fail to honor its commitments.
Ebrahim Raisi was due to arrive in Qatar, which often plays the role of mediator, on Monday to discuss the nuclear deal, according to Qatari sources.
“Qatar is active in bridging the rift between the United States and Iran which hit deadlocks during the talks in Vienna. But they have made progress and started to consider direct talks,” said a diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
French President Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart on Saturday that Iran must “now seize” the opportunity to preserve the Vienna agreement, the French presidency said.
During a telephone interview, “the President of the Republic stressed the imperative need to conclude an agreement while there is still time”, underlined the Elysée in a press release.
On Thursday, the United States had reported “substantial progress” in Vienna, deeming an agreement possible “in the coming days”.