BICOM

Prime Minister Theresa May will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Downing Street this afternoon.

May is expected to reiterate the UK’s commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran during the meeting. Netanyahu, one of the agreement’s most outspoken critics, will  raise his concerns about the deal’s “sunset clauses,” by which restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme are lifted over time, and the deal’s long-term ability to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring a nuclear bomb. A number of large European companies have already indicated they will withdraw of cancel business operations in Iran in light of new US sanctions. Iran also announced yesterday that it plans to increase Uranium enrichment in the future.

Netanyahu’s visit follows weeks of violence in Gaza. The UK Government questioned Israel’s use of live-fire to prevent Hamas operatives breaking through the border fence and supported an international investigation. The two leaders are expected to discuss ways to end the violence and alleviate the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Yesterday Netanyahu met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel the day before in Berlin.

Despite media reports that Netanyahu has used this European trip to try and persuade Germany, France and the UK to leave the JCPOA, he told a press conference in Paris: “I want to make it clear that I did not ask President Macron to leave the deal. My interest is not this or that agreement. My interest is to make sure that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons,” he added.

Macron said France will continue to work with the existing deal, asking how one “think that a total absence of controls and commitments is better than the 2015 framework?”.

Macron also blamed the recent violence in Gaza on the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem last month. “Things like that provoke violence in response… this leads to people dying,” Macron said.