BICOM

Matthew Gould, Britain’s ambassador to Israel, told Haaretz yesterday that the level of cooperation between the two countries is “very high”. Gould comments come after a visit to London by Israel’s National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror, ahead of the second round of talks between the p5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) and Iran.

Whilst in London, Amidror met his British counterpart Sir Kim Darroch, Foreign Secretary William Hague and senior Defence Ministry and intelligence officials. After taking part in the talks Gould told Haaretz that during the meetings the two countries “compared notes about the negotiations approach, about how we continue to tighten sanctions and about the analysis of the progress of the Iranian nuclear programme. The level of cooperation between the two countries is very high.”

Gould also told the Israeli paper that the UK is “absolutely not naive about Iran’s intentions and about Iran’s negotiation tactics … the people in London who deal with this dossier have been dealing with Iran for years and years. Our representative in the talks is Jeffrey Adams who was our ambassador to Tehran. There is no naivete in our approach to these talks.”

Addressing Israeli fears, Gould said the P5+1 would not let “Iran use those negotiations simply to buy time,” and that “Iran will not get something for nothing. We will not be lifting sanctions simply because the atmosphere of the talks is constructive. Iran needs to come to the table with concrete proposals for how it can rebuild the trust of the international community. We will judge Iran by its actions and take our decisions accordingly.”

Iran, according to Gould, will have to take concrete steps to convince the West to set aside the oil embargo set to begin on 1 July. “Iran must not think and Israel must not worry that just because we are talking the pressure is off Iran.”

The second round of talks with Iran is set to begin on 23 May in Baghdad.