Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Sunday that his government’s goal is to “utilize the window of opportunity” between rounds of the nuclear talks in Vienna to tell Washington that the time has come for a “different toolkit” against Iran’s progress in uranium enrichment.
Revelations that Iran may have a nuclear bomb within weeks overshadowed Hanukkah feasts in Israel, but Israel’s spy chief warned Iran it would not be allowed to become a nuclear power.
The head of the Mossad spy agency said Thursday that a bad nuclear deal between world powers and Iran would be “intolerable” for Israel, vowing that the Islamic Republic will never acquire nuclear weapons.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on the United States on Thursday to immediately halt the ongoing negotiations in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Israel has to do “everything it can” in order to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, if not “there may be a point when we will have no choice but to act,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Thursday.
The Israeli military has accelerated its readiness plans aimed at preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear threshold state and to stop its entrenchment in the northern arena, Israel Defense Forces’ spokesman Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav told the Israeli Reshet Bet radio network on Tuesday.
Iran must show seriousness this week about reviving a 2015 nuclear deal with major powers, European diplomats said on Tuesday, saying otherwise they had a “problem” and it remained unclear if Tehran would resume talks where they left off in June.
Israel has been sharing intelligence with the United States showing that Iran is “taking technical steps to prepare to enrich uranium” to weapons-grade 90 percent purity, according to a report Monday.
Iran refused to meet face-to-face with American diplomats as talks over the Islamic republic’s suspect nuclear programs resumed Monday in Vienna following a five-month hiatus — a period in which a hardline new government has come to power.
Britain and Israel will “work night and day” in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, the foreign ministers of the two countries wrote in a joint article.
What could be the last chance of preventing Iran going nuclear gets under way this week. Nuclear talks resume. Potentially at stake is a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, or regional escalation and conflict.
Protests in the Iranian city of Isfahan over the drying up of a river turned violent, as riot police arrested 67 people on Saturday.
The spokesman for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s armed forces, Brig.-Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, on Saturday urged the total elimination of the Jewish state during an interview with an Iranian regime-controlled media outlet.
Among 27 migrants who died after their boat sank near Calais, France, were 17 men, seven women – one of whom was pregnant – and three children, France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.
A top Iranian court has ordered a review of five-year prison terms given to nine Christian converts who left Islam, according to sources familiar with the court’s thinking.
As world powers prepare to reconvene in Vienna for renewed nuclear talks with Iran, former National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror said that “without a military threat and pressure on Iran, nothing will result from a deal.”
Israel will make its position heard ahead of the return to nuclear talks with Iran by world powers on Monday, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid scheduled to visit London and Paris next week.
The US warned Thursday it could raise the stakes in international pressure on Iran if the Islamic Republic continues to hinder efforts by the UN nuclear watchdog to monitor its nuclear program.
A top US general said Iran has the ability to build a nuclear weapon in a very short time and that the US military was ready with other options to prevent this should diplomacy fail.
UN nuclear inspectors have warned part of their surveillance of Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program has gone dark.