FILE – Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani arrives at the Palais Coburg, a site where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, Feb. 8, 2022. Iranian lawmakers have urged President Ebrahim Raisi to obtain guarantees from the U.S. and three European countries that they won’t withdraw from the nuclear agreement being renegotiated in Vienna. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner, File)
SRDTF News
UPDATED 8:43 AM PT – Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Israeli officials are warning America’s Joe Biden and his European allies against inking a new nuclear deal with Iran. During an interview Monday, former Israeli Prime Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu derided Biden’s stance on Iran as weak.
Earlier this month, Biden bent the knee to the Ayatollah’s demands to restore civil nuclear waivers, so they could resurrect the failed Iran Nuclear Deal administered by former President Barack Obama. Netanyahu claimed a new agreement would embolden the Iranian regime and it will likely ramp up its aggressive tactics toward Israel
“We are the first target, but the rest of the world is really the next target,” he stated. “I think that the important thing is what is the right policy and what is the wrong policy, not who is doing it. When I saw American administrations over the years adopt policies that I thought were inimical or dangerous to my country, I opposed them.
This comes as U.S., European and Iranian diplomats have been pushing to finalize a new deal in Vienna over the past several weeks. Biden has made this a top foreign policy priority since taking office. The agreement on the table ensures America would lift sanctions imposed in Iran in 2018 when President Donald Trump withdrew from Obama’s JCPOA that crippled Iran’s ability to trade with the rest of the world.
Additionally, the proposal aims to limit Iran’s nuclear program while accounting for the country’s nuclear developments over the past four years. It can now produce enough enriched uranium to develop a nuclear bomb in six months, which is down from one year when the original deal was brokered.
However, Israel’s current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, demurs diplomats believing the new deal would lead to a stable Middle East is misguided. He warned Iran would be able to amass a strong military and deploy terrorist cells across the region.
“In the meantime, as an advance payment, Iran gets now tens of billions of dollars in frozen assets, in access to new markets,” Bennett explained. “And a lot of this money is going to be directly funneled right away towards attacking Israel, towards attacking our allies and even attacking American soldiers in the Middle East.”
Israeli officials echoed concerns Trump had with the original deal.
“It didn’t bring calm, it didn’t bring peace and it never will,’” stated the 45th U.S. president during a 2018 address. “In the years since the deal was reached, Iran’s military budget has grown by almost 40 percent while its economy is doing very badly. After the sanctions were lifted, the dictatorship used its news funds to build nuclear-capable missiles, support terrorism and cause havoc throughout the Middle East and beyond.”
In the meantime, reports say a new deal could be reached soon. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stressed there wouldn’t be an agreement until all parties agree on the terms.