US set to delay Iran talks to hear Israel’s new stance
In sharp departure from past, Israel sending sanctions experts to Washington
The US is seeking to extend the time between rounds of indirect nuclear talks with Iran in order to talk more to the new Israeli government about its position.
Washington feels that the negotiations to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are worth delaying in order to better cooperate with Israel, a source with knowledge of the Biden administration’s side of the talks said on Wednesday.
The new government plans to send experts to Washington to discuss ways to better enforce the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action’s limitations on Iran’s nuclear program, including which sanctions to keep intact, as some will be removed if the US returns to the deal.
This is a sharp departure from former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy, which blocked any dialogue about the Biden administration’s plan to reenter the JCPOA.
An expert with close ties to the Biden administration, Ofer Zalzberg, Middle East Program director at the Kelman Institute for Conflict Transformation, said that “the sense in Washington is that post-Netanyahu Israel... wants to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon through a strong agreement.
“The US is keen on cooperative relations with Israel on this, though it would mean taking time for dialog with Israel’s new government – and hence a delay in negotiations with Iran – and likely placing more demanding positions to Iran,” Zalzberg said.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid
plans to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome on Sunday, a week after the sixth round of indirect talks between the US and Iran on returning to the 2015 nuclear deal came to a close.
The Israeli government is conducting a policy review on how it plans to handle the Iran nuclear threat and the likelihood that the US will return to the JCPOA, as the nuclear deal is called.
One question Lapid is expected to ask Blinken is what he means by seeking a “longer and stronger” JCPOA, as the secretary of state has repeatedly said.
The trip will be Lapid’s first as foreign minister and the first meeting between members of the new Israeli government and US President Joe Biden’s cabinet, exactly two weeks after the new government was sworn in. Blinken and Lapid have spoken twice since then and sought to meet in person as soon as possible.
The meeting will take place in Rome because Lapid does not want to upstage Prime Minister Naftali Bennett; meeting in Rome would allow Bennett to have the first trip to Washington.
Iran is one of a number of issues Lapid and Blinken plan to discuss. Another is the US plan to open a consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi was in Washington on Wednesday, where he met with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and other senior officials to discuss regional challenges, foremost of which was Iranian aggression and nuclear ambitions, and
“There is no need to panic,” he said in a speech Tuesday night at Ben-Gurion Airport.
It was a strikingly different talk than the first ones delivered by Netanyahu at the onset of the crisis. Netanyahu immediately alerted citizens that 5,000 of them were about to die COVID – frightening and paralyzing the public.
Instead, Bennett said: “Our goal is to cut off [the outbreak], to take a bucket of water and pour it over the fire while the fire is still small.”
Furthermore, he promised to be “very transparent with you, the Israeli public, because you deserve to know everything.”
He then reestablished the coronavirus cabinet and brought together top health officials to construct an action plan, which was shared Wednesday evening “in order not to surprise you, so that you will be able to know – if the outbreak has reached a certain level – what will happen.”
Israelis still remember staying up late, glued to their radios and TVs the night before a potential lockdown or school closure or opening, while the previous government zigzagged on its policies.
Bennett offered the public a true accounting of the country’s vaccine inventory – something Netanyahu never wanted to do, not even with his government or the Knesset.
“The vaccines that we have will mostly expire by the end of July,” the prime minister explained. “This means that to complete the two doses, one needs to receive the first vaccine by July 9. We have enough in stock for everyone – but for whoever is not vaccinated by July 9, we will not have vaccines for later.”
2 – Hardline stance on the airport
The failure of Netanyahu’s government to effectively manage Ben-Gurion Airport played a major role in exacerbating the coronavirus crisis, which ultimately led to many of the country’s more than 6,000 deaths.
While his administration did make a rule that people could not travel to and from countries with high infection without special permission – and returnees had to enter isolation – there was no one monitoring entrances and exits and there were no sanctions attached.
Isolation was never really monitored and only a few fines were handed out.
But Bennett seems to have a no-tolerance policy for variants sneaking in through the country’s borders.
When it became apparent that the current outbreak was mostly caused by breaches of quarantine by people returning from abroad, Bennett, together with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli immediately took a tour of the airport complex and came up with plans to crack down.
They expanded testing capabilities – and another testing complex is expected to be built – instituted fines and closed dangerous loopholes in the regulations.
“Everyone who enters Israel will have an inspection at the airport, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, Israeli or foreign,” Horowitz said.
People who break isolation will be fined NIS 5,000 and it is expected there will be a fine of thousands of shekels for anyone who travels to a dangerous country.
3 – Masking
Bennett has maintained since September 2020 a policy of masks instead of closure – if everyone wears a mask, Israel could defeat coronavirus in five to six weeks, he claimed then.
Masking is “one of the things that requires a very low price from us, but can bring a lot of good results,” Public Health Services head Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis said on Wednesday.
Bennett rolled out the requirement to wear masks at the airport and in medical facilities, and then set a policy that if an average of 100 people are infected per day for a week, the obligation to wear a mask in all enclosed spaces will apply.
4 – Personal example
In the meantime, Bennett only “recommended” that people wear masks in other closed spaces. On the other hand, he “instructed” government ministers and public leaders to wear masks – requiring them to adhere to a higher standard.
In the previous administration, officials often held to lower standards.
During the 2020 Passover Seders, when citizens were asked to celebrate the holiday in their own homes and with their nuclear families, Netanyahu invited his son for dinner, and Yoav Galant, Avigdor Liberman and Nir Barkat were all caught with their own violations, too.
Gila Gamliel was also caught breaking the rules on Yom Kippur.
5 – An expert cabinet
The coronavirus cabinet resumed its activities on Wednesday with representation from all the sectors that are directly affected by COVID-19.
The cabinet includes not only Bennett, Gantz, Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, but also Horowitz, Public Security Minister Omer Bar Lev, Economy Minister Orna Barbivay, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin and Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana.
He also invited appropriate experts from the tourism and travel industries, as well as from the police and the medical field.
“No one suspects that he is acting for personal reasons,” one hospital head told the Post.
“He held good, open discussions aimed at arriving at founded decisions,” a health expert who was at Bennett’s Wednesday night meeting on COVID said. “He understands that it is important to suppress the current [outbreak] immediately, and wants to take proper action for that.
“So far, he looks OK to me,” the professional added. “Now, let’s see the implementation.”