President Biden and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said in separate speeches to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday that they want to reach a new nuclear deal, but their remarks underscored how difficult striking an agreement will be.
The nuclear deal between Iran and world powers is unlikely to be renewed soon, if at all, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Thursday after European leaders voiced doubt about Tehran’s willingness to restore the 2015 agreement.
Despite recent cautious optimism on the outcome of talks between world powers and Iran on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters in Mexico City Monday it was “unlikely” that a new agreement with Tehran would be reached in the near future, the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reports.
Mossad chief David Barnea on Monday said Israel would not participate in the “charade” of a renewed nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, and warn that the emerging agreement would “not provide immunity” for Tehran from the spy agency’s operations.
France, Britain, and Germany on Saturday vented their frustration at Iran’s demand in talks to revive its 2015 nuclear deal that the UN nuclear watchdog close a probe into uranium particles found at three sites, adding that it was jeopardizing the talks.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on September 12, urged Iran to accept the proposals of a revived nuclear deal being offered by Germany, France, and Britain, saying there is “no reason” for the Iranian regime to refuse them, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reports. The three world powers told Iran on September 10 that the final texts of a deal are ready for signature, but Tehran is dragging its heels.
The prospects of restoring the nuclear agreement between the United States and Iran are drifting away, an official told Israel Hayom Friday, citing Tehran’s response to Washington’s latest proposal and internal political processes in the US.
A new nuclear deal between Iran and world powers is off the table and will not be signed in the foreseeable future, The Times of Israel’s sister site Zman Yisrael has learned. This is the message that was conveyed to Prime Minister Yair Lapid in his recent conversations with US President Joe Biden and other administration officials.
Iran says it demanded stronger guarantees from the United States in the most recent draft of the nuclear deal, the latest indication that while talks on reviving the 2015 agreement are progressing, gaps still remain.
The Mossad intelligence agency chief David Barnea will visit Washington next week as part of Israel’s attempts to dissuade the US and other Western powers from signing the deal. Barnea will be the third senior Israeli official to do so in recent days after both Defense Minister Benny Gantz and national security adviser Eyal Hulata also visited Washington in the last week.
Mossad chief David Barnea has called an emerging Iran nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers “a strategic disaster” for Israel, in recent meetings about the agreement.
At least one US military service member in Syria suffered a minor injury and up to three suspected Iran-backed militants were killed on Wednesday, the US military said, in the second consecutive day of violence.
The Biden administration on Wednesday inched closer to restarting a controversial nuclear deal with Iran, brushing aside stark warnings from key American ally Israel and sidestepping mounting evidence that Tehran and its proxies have not moderated their behavior on other fronts and remain intent on targeting U.S. troops, officials, allies and interests.
Israeli fighter planes have entered Iran’s airspace multiple times in recent months without being detected by either Iranian or Russian radar, the Jerusalem Post reports. The news that Israeli Air Force F-35 stealth planes had penetrated Iranian airspace in the last two months was reported by the Saudi media outlet Elaph.
As the resurrection of the Iran nuclear deal appears to be imminent, Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced Tuesday that he will travel to the United States for a series of meetings with American defense officials later this week.
Iran has dropped some of its main demands on resurrecting a deal to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program, including its insistence that international inspectors close some probes of its atomic program, bringing the possibility of an agreement closer, a senior US official told Reuters on Monday.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Monday vowed in a conversation with French President Emanuel Macron that Israel would do whatever it takes to head off a nuclear-armed Iran, as the EU said that a meeting to finalize an agreement with Tehran might take place this week.
The time has come for Western powers to walk away from talks with Iran on returning to the nuclear deal, top Israeli officials are telling their counterparts in Washington and in European capitals.
Iranian hardliners have claimed the US is set to make concessions as part of a nuclear deal with Tehran, according to a Thursday report.
The European Union on Monday put forth a “final” text to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as four days of indirect negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials wrapped up in Vienna, a senior EU official said.
