OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The US and Israel “see eye-to-eye” on preventing Iran from obtaining
atomic weapons, US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken said Sunday, before talks
in Israel with Arab foreign ministers skeptical of a nuclear pact with Tehran.
اضافة اعلان
Blinken was
meeting top Israeli officials in Jerusalem as signals mount that the tattered
2015 landmark deal Tehran signed with major powers will soon be restored.
Israel fiercely
opposed the initial accord, which promised its enemy
Iran sanctions relief in
return for curbs on its nuclear program, and has said that a revived agreement
will not do enough to curb the Iranian threat.
Speaking
alongside his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid, Blinken said the US believes
restoring the agreement is “the best way to put Iran’s program back in the box
that it was in but has escaped from ” after the US withdrew from the deal under
former president Donald Trump in 2018.
Despite
long-standing disagreements with Israel over the nuclear deal, known as the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Blinken stressed that “when it comes to the
most important element, we see eye to eye”.
“We are both
committed, both determined, that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Iran insists its
nuclear program is for civilian use only.
‘United front’
Lapid said Israel had “disagreements” with Washington about the Iranian
nuclear issue, which it was airing with its key ally in “open and honest
dialogue”.
“Israel will do
anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear program. Anything,”
Lapid said.
“From our point
of view, the Iranian threat is not theoretical. The
Iranians want to destroy
Israel. They will not succeed. We will not let them.”
Israeli Prime
Minister Naftali Bennett, following his meeting with Blinken, said Israel was
specifically “concerned about the intention to de-list”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Tehran has said
that taking the IRGC off a US terror list is a condition for restoring the
deal.
Speaking in Doha
on Sunday, US envoy Robert Malley said “the IRGC will remain sanctioned under
US law”.
Blinken and
Lapid will both attend a Sunday–Monday meeting in Israel’s Negev desert with
foreign ministers from Egypt, Bahrain, the UAE, and Morocco.
The JCPOA has
long been a source of concern for US allies in the Middle East, who see Iran as
a menace.
Uzi Rabi, head
of the
Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University,
told AFP that the Negev meet was in part aimed at sending a message — to Tehran
and Washington — as the Iran talks approach a possible conclusion.
“Iran should
understand that there is a kind of united front against it,” Rabi said.
“The most
important message to be delivered is that there are many in the Middle East who
are not satisfied with US performance regarding Iran.”
The UAE,
Bahrain, and
Morocco established full ties with Israel under Trump-brokered
deals in 2020-2021. Egypt had in 1979 become the first Arab country to establish relations
with Israel.
Iran has been
engaged for months in talks in Vienna to revive the accord with Britain, China,
France, Germany, and Russia directly. The US has been taking part indirectly in
the negotiations.
The EU’s foreign
policy chief said at the weekend that a deal with Iran will likely be renewed
“in a matter of days”.
Blinken also meet Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah in the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, part of the Biden administration’s efforts to
rebuild ties with the PA that collapsed under Trump.
The Trump administration
slashed support for the Palestinians and closed the US consulate in Jerusalem
dedicated to Palestinian relations.
Tensions in
Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as their future
capital, partly fueled violence last May with Hamas who control the Gaza
Strip.
Blinken said he
and Bennett discussed strategies to ensure calm this year during the Muslim
holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish Passover holiday, which overlap.
Blinken stressed
the need to “prevent actions on all sides that could raise tensions, including settlement expansion” in occupied Palestinian territories.
Bennett is the
former head of a settler lobby council and opposes Palestinian statehood.
Blinken’s comments
marked a rare in-person condemnation of Israeli efforts to expand the settler
population.
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