Israel ready to attack Iran regardless of new agreements, says Israeli PM

“The [current round of] negotiations are unlikely to achieve what Israel considers to be a good agreement” with Iran, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. 

By Tobias Siegal, World Israel News

Speaking on Army Radio on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that Israel will “maintain its right to act” against Iran regardless of any potential agreement that the Vienna talks might yield.

Reiterating comments made by Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday, the Israeli premier emphasized that “Israel does not oppose any agreement,” noting that “a good agreement is a good thing … We don’t insist on saying ‘no’. There can certainly be a good agreement.”

But Israel will oppose an agreement “that does not promise real oversight of the Iranian nuclear program and Iran’s finances and terrorist network,” he stressed.

Bennett also confirmed that Israel had not provided any commitment to the United States about stopping its operations against Iran’s nuclear program, despite attempts made by the Biden administration to warn Israeli about such actions.

Addressing the Vienna talks between Western powers and Iran that resumed Monday, Bennett said that the negotiations are unlikely to achieve what Israel considers to be a good agreement under the appropriate parameters.

He explained that the “current dynamic” of the negotiations attributes more power to Iran than it actually has. “There needs to be a much firmer position” on Tehran, Bennett argued. “Iran is negotiating with a very weak hand. Unfortunately, however, the world is acting like Iran has a strong position,” he added.

On Monday, Lapid said that Israel had provided its allies “with concrete intelligence that proves that Iran is systematically deceiving the world,” adding that Tehran “only cares about sanctions being lifted and money pouring into its nuclear program, Hezbollah, Syria, Iraq – to its global network of terror.”

But despite Israel’s apparent warnings, the European Union (EU) envoy to the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, Enrique Mora, said that on Monday that all sides were showing “a clear will to work toward the successful end of this negotiation,” despite clear obstacles ahead.

Obstacles that have taken the form of new demands made by the Iranian envoy, and not a mutual process of concessions as one would expect.

Iran is currently insisting that the U.S. and its allies promise to allow Tehran to export its crude oil, Associated Press has reported. Speaking to reporters in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said Iran wants the upcoming round of talks to focus on achieving the “point where Iranian oil is being sold easily and without any barriers and its money arrives in Iran’s bank accounts.”

IranNaftali Bennettvienna talks