Israel urges pressure on Iran
TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday urged world powers to take a hard line against Iran in negotiations aimed at reviving an international nuclear deal, as his top defense and intelligence officials headed to Washington to discuss the flailing talks.
Israel has been watching with concern as world powers sit down with Iran in Vienna in hopes of restoring the tattered 2015 deal. Iran last week struck a hard line as talks resumed, suggesting everything discussed in previous rounds of diplomacy could be renegotiated. Continued Iranian advances in its atomic program have further raised the stakes.
The original deal, spearheaded by then-President Obama, gave Iran relief from economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities. But thenPresident Trump, with encouragement from Israel, withdrew from the deal in 2018, causing it to unravel.
Last week’s talks in Vienna resumed after a more than five-month hiatus and were the first in which Iran’s new hard-line government participated. European and American negotiators expressed disappointment with Iran’s positions and questioned whether the talks would succeed.
Israel has long opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran, known as the JCPOA, saying it didn’t go far enough to halt the country’s nuclear program and doesn’t address what it sees as Tehran’s hostile military activity across the region.
Prominent voices in Israel are now indicating the U.S. withdrawal was a blunder. But Israel’s new government has maintained a similar position to that of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — rejecting a return to the original deal and calling for diplomacy to be accompanied by military pressure on Iran.
“I call on every country negotiating with Iran in Vienna to take a strong line and make it clear to Iran that they cannot enrich uranium and negotiate at the same time,” Bennett told his Cabinet on Sunday. “Iran must begin to pay a price for its violations.”
After the deal’s collapse, Iran stepped up its nuclear activities. It now enriches small amounts of uranium up to 60% purity — a short step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran also spins advanced centrifuges barred by the accord, and its uranium stockpile now far exceeds the deal’s limits.
For now, Iran is showing no signs of backing down. Its chief negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, suggested over the weekend that Iran plans to give a third list of demands to his counterparts. These would include proposed reparations after two pages worth of demands last week.
“Any sanctions in violation and not consistent with the [deal] should be removed immediately,” Bagheri Kani told Al Jazeera. “All the sanctions which have been imposed or reimposed under the socalled maximum pressure campaign of the United States should be removed immediately.”
Although new hard-line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi campaigned on getting sanctions lifted, there’s a sense that his negotiators are waging their own maximum-pressure campaign.
Last week, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog confirmed that Iran has begun enriching uranium up to 20% purity at its underground facility at Fordo — a site the deal banned from conducting any enrichment.
President Biden has said America is willing to reenter the deal, though the U.S. is not a direct participant in talks due to Washington’s withdrawal. Instead, U.S. negotiators were briefed by the other participants.
Although Israel is not a party to the negotiations, it has made a point of maintaining lines of communication with its American and European allies during the talks, which are set to resume this week.
Israeli spy chief David Barnea headed to Washington late Saturday, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz leaves Wednesday to meet with U.S. counterpart Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.
Iran says its atomic program is peaceful. However, U.S. intelligence agencies and international inspectors say Iran had an organized nuclear weapons program up until 2003.