Israeli PM Naftali Bennett (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
“There is a time for everything. A time to keep silent and a time to speak. Now is the time to speak,” Bennett stated.
By World Israel News Staff
Addressing the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program that have ended without results, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on “our friends in the U.S.” to change their strategy on the issue.
“The Iranians, as expected, are proficient negotiators. They backtracked from previous agreements and came with a very strong and thuggish approach,” Bennett said during the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday.
In a phone call to Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week, Bennett insisted that Iran was engaging in “nuclear blackmail” by continuing to enrich uranium at its Fordo facility.
“During the talks, we received reports that they had begun to enrich up to 20% purity in advanced centrifuges at Fordo. This is a very serious step,” Bennett said Sunday.
The Israeli premier urged “every country negotiating with Iran … to take a strong line and make it clear … that it is impossible to negotiate and enrich uranium at the same time.”
He continued: “Our goal is to utilize the window of opportunity that has opened between the rounds in order to tell our friends in the US: This is precisely the time to use a different toolkit against Iran’s galloping forward in the enrichment sphere.
“Iran must start paying for its violations. The goal of the Iranian regime is the lifting of sanctions. For this they went to Vienna with dozens of advisors and sanctions experts, because this their goal: The ability to do what they are doing now regarding terrorism and in the nuclear sphere, only this time they want to be strengthened by tens of billions of dollars and a tailwind for all of their activity. We are holding an intensive dialogue on this matter with the Americans, the British, the French, Russia and others.
“Another word: Our strength is in our unity. A bad deal with the Iranians will have implications for our national security. Therefore, there is a time for everything. A time to keep silent and a time to speak. Now is the time to speak,” Bennett concluded.
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