Israeli PM To Present Biden With Strategy For Stopping Iran Without Nuclear Deal

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will present to US President Joe Biden on Thursday a strategy for confronting both Iran’s nuclear program and its regional activities without returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement, according to a senior diplomatic source.

“The heart of the diplomatic discussion will deal with Iran,” said the source during a phone briefing on Monday evening, speaking to reporters ahead of Bennett’s trip to Washington on Tuesday.

“When we began to plan the visit, a return to the agreement seemed certain. Since then, time has passed, the president in Iran has changed, and things seem far less certain. In our view, it may be that there is no return to the agreement.”

Bennett will argue that Iran’s nuclear program has advanced too far for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to have any relevance in 2021. Though it might plug some holes on the enrichment side, the deal gives the Islamic Republic too much in return, the official maintained.

“We inherited an Iran that is working extremely aggressively and is empowering very negative forces in the region,” said the source, indicating criticism of the previous, Benjamin-Netanyahu-led government’s handling of the issue.

The prime minister has been involved in a deep policy review process on the Iran issue since entering office in June, and believes that a return to the deal is no longer a given, according to the source.

Bennett has long publicly opposed the Biden administration’s stated plan to reenter the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which former US president Donald Trump pulled out of in 2018. Western powers — with the US participating indirectly — held months of negotiations with Iran in Vienna earlier this year, but talks stalled ahead of the installation of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s president, earlier this month.