While Antony Blinken denied rumors of a US-Iran nuclear deal, Israel expressed its approval of an agreement between its sworn enemy Iran and the United States, especially if the deal includes rigorous supervision of Tehran’s nuclear program.
According to Iranian and Western officials, Washington is holding talks with Iran to outline measures that could include a limitation on Iran’s nuclear program. An agreement to which Israel seems favorable.
These steps would be cast as an “understanding” rather than an agreement requiring review by the U.S. Congress, such as the 2015 accord abandoned in 2018 by then-President Donald Trump.
“It’s not a wide-scope agreement, it’s more like a small agreement, a memorandum of understanding, an M.O.U., and I think Israel can live with this if there is real supervision,” Yuli Edelstein, head of the Israeli parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, told Channel 12’s Meet the Press.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment on the matter. And there is no suggestion that Likud member Yuli Edelstein’s remarks reflected the Prime Minister’s opinion.
On Tuesday, before briefing the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Mr. Netanyahu had said: “Our position is clear. No agreement with Iran would oblige Israel, which will do everything necessary to defend itself.”
“But there are still differences of opinion, and we don’t hide them, regarding smaller agreements as well. We have made our position clear, both in closed and open sessions,” Netanyahu admitted.
One of the key elements of the eventual agreement that remains unclear is the extent to which Iran would agree to curb its uranium enrichment. On this issue too, Israeli officials in Mr. Netanyahu’s entourage have given differing opinions.
Netanyahu’s national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, said Israel didn’t see as much “damage” in a new deal as in the 2015 agreement, but that it was “ready” to deal with any move by Iran to more than 60% fissile purity.
But last week, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who accompanied Mr. Hanegbi to the Iran talks in Washington, expressed doubts about a possible “freeze” on current enrichment levels.
“This means reconciling with a higher level of enrichment in Iran. We thought it was a bad idea then, and we think it’s a bad idea now,” he said at the AJC World Forum in Tel Aviv.
Having failed to revive the 2015 agreement, US President Joe Biden’s administration hopes to re-establish certain limits for Iran in order to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel in particular and trigger an arms race in the region. However, the US government rejects any accusation that it is seeking a provisional agreement with Tehran.
Maïssa Ben Fares, with REUTERS
