Lapid Says Israel Will Support Iran Nuclear Pact, if It’s ‘a Good Deal.’

Lapid Says Israel Will Support Iran Nuclear Pact, if It’s ‘a Good Deal.’

New York Times-Dec 23rd 2021

By David E. Sanger and Patrick Kingsley

The Israeli foreign minister said “we have no problem with a deal,” but perhaps because he thinks the prospects of an agreement are remote.

Israel’s foreign minister, Yair Lapid, said Wednesday that Israel would have no problem if the United States entered a strong nuclear deal with Iran that would permanently limit its ability to assemble a nuclear weapon, and that reaching a resolution with the Palestinians was now a lower priority for his government, behind the pandemic and the economy.

Mr. Lapid’s comments on the Iran deal in a video conversation from his office came just hours after he met with Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser. Mr. Sullivan had traveled to Israel in an effort to create what he called a “common strategy” with the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which has been sabotaging Iran’s nuclear facilities while the U.S. has tried to restore the 2015 treaty with Tehran.

Mr. Lapid is scheduled to become prime minister in 2023 if the fragile coalition deal that created the current government holds. His willingness to sanction a U.S. deal with a country Israel deeply distrusts may reflect in part the conclusion that the Bidenadministration’s hopes for a nuclear agreement with Iran now seem all but shattered.

The yearlong effort to restore the 2015 accord that President Donald J. Trump abandoned — with Israel’s support — has failed so far, and Iran has rejected any effort to make the agreement “longer and stronger,” the goal outlined by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/world/middleeast/lapid-israel-nuclear-iran-palestinians.html