BICOM

Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz yesterday echoed the concerns of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the international community is preparing to agree a dangerous deal with Iran over its nuclear programme.

The P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) are engaged in a pivotal round of talks with Iran in an attempt to reach a so far elusive long-term agreement over Iran’s nuclear development. The two sides were unable to meet a 20 July deadline to broker such a settlement and agreed to extend the talks until 24 November. At the same time, the United States is leading a coalition of international forces committed to defeating ISIS.

Yesterday, Steinitz told Israel Radio there is a danger because, “there is a desire by some of the actors to clear [the Iranian nuclear issue] off the table.” Expanding on the theme in an op-ed in the New York Times earlier this week, Steinitz said “even more important” than ISIS is “to preclude” Iran “from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.” He said that Israel is “deeply concerned” over the “trajectory of the ongoing negotiations concerning Iran’s nuclear programme … especially on the core issue of uranium enrichment,” with Iran insistent over centrifuges. It was reported last week that the United States could soften its demand on reducing the number of centrifuges in return for Iran shipping out near weapons-grade enriched uranium.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu said Israel has “genuine concern” as, “We have not seen any evidence” of “genuine flexibility” from Iran.” He warned, “We are standing before the danger of an agreement that will leave Iran as a nuclear threshold state,” adding, “This is a threat to the entire world, first and foremost to Israel, and it is much worse than the threat of ISIS.”

Meanwhile, Steinitz is expected to travel to London this week to discuss the Iran nuclear talks with British leaders.