Israel Alt-PM Tries ‘Last Minute’ Push to Stop Biden from Iran Deal Return

NEWSWEEK

BY TOM O’CONNOR ON 8/23/22 

Israeli Alternative Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has issued a strongly worded appeal to President Joe Biden in hopes of convincing the U.S. leader and his administration not to re-enter a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and major world powers as the White House deliberates on the move.

“I call on @POTUS Biden & the US administration to refrain, even now at this last minute, from signing the agreement with Iran,” Bennett wrote on Twitter. “This agreement will send approximately a quarter of a trillion dollars to the Iranian terror administration’s pocket and to its regional proxies and will enable Iran to develop, install and operate centrifuges, with almost no restrictions, in a mere two years.”

Bennett, a veteran right-wing politician who served as prime minister for about a year’s time between mid-June 2021 and late June of this year, also suggested that his administration had been influential in blocking Biden from joining the accord officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has been the subject of 16 months of negotiations among the deal’s signatories.

“Throughout the past year, even when it was very close, we successfully convinced our White House counterparts not to give in to Iranian demands,” Bennett said. “I hope this will remain the case.”