‘Europe would be right in easing sanctions, if Iran complies’

Senior Israeli officials said Wednesday that Europe would be right to ease sanctions on Tehran if the Iranian regime complies with Western demands regarding its nuclear program.

The unnamed officials were cited by Israel Radio, and spoke following high-level discussions earlier in the day between visiting British and French officials and their counterparts in Israel.

The European officials met with, among others, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, and held talks with representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the National Security Council.

According to what sources told Israel Radio, the European position on Iran is “stable” and Israeli officials “did not identify an intention to follow blindly Iranian proposals that are not serious.”

The Israeli officials reportedly said that should Iran comply with conditions set by the P5+1 earlier this year in Kazakhstan, the Europeans would be right in easing some sanctions, particularly those that touch on humanitarian concerns. The conditions included the suspension of activity at the Fordo nuclear facility, more penetrating inspections and limiting the amount of enriched uranium allowed in the country.

European participants in Wednesday’s meetings did not express any reservations regarding Israel’s public demands that Iran stop uranium enrichment completely, according to Israeli officials who were present. The Israelis were reassured that their concerns would be “taken into account seriously” ahead of next week’s resumption of talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Geneva.

An Israeli TV report said Wednesday that Iran and the United States had secretly made significant progress toward an agreement that would aim to keep Iran “two or three years away” from a nuclear weapons capability.

The behind-the-scenes negotiations have moved a long way forward — far more than is widely thought — with Oman among the mediators, Israel’s Channel 2 news said.

“Israel knows [about] this,” the report added.

There was no confirmation of the report, which was made by the station’s Middle East affairs correspondent Ehud Ya’ari.

The TV report came just a day after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against “a bad deal” being done with Iran, under which sanctions were eased but Iran was left with the capacity to enrich uranium and/or pursue a plutonium route to the bomb.

There is “more than a likelihood” that the accelerated diplomatic contacts will produce a deal, the TV report said, adding that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin “will come in at a certain stage… and play an important role,” as he did in resolving the crisis over Syria’s use of chemical weapons a little over a month ago. For now, though, it is the US and Iran that are doing the negotiating.

Hours after that report, a senior US official told a UN panel that there were “potentially historic opportunities” to rein in the Iranians.

“We should be cautious but cognizant of potentially historic opportunities,” Rose Gottemoeller, the US assistant secretary of state for arms control said. Speaking to a UN disarmament committee, Gottemoeller encouraged its members to “continue to push to bring Iran back into line with its international nuclear obligations.”

She said the US was “ready to talk… ready to listen” and “ready to work hard” to make the new effort at engagement a success, but cautioned: The road toward the next steps might not be familiar and it will require difficult negotiations and complicated diplomacy.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.