Lapid, Netanyahu’s Likud spar over emerging US nuclear understanding with Iran
Opposition leader says PM has lost all ability to influence Biden administration; senior official said to say Israel not ‘surprised’ by emerging deal and likely to accept it
Opposition leader Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sparred Friday over an emerging US understanding with Iran over its nuclear program and amid indications Israel has resigned itself to accepting the arrangement.
Lapid slammed Netanyahu for allowing the agreement between Iran and the US to take place, claiming Netanyahu’s inability to influence the Biden Administration is due to the controversial judicial overhaul.
“Despite attempts to call it something else, what the US and Iran are about to sign is a nuclear agreement. It’s the same agreement that they tried to sign during [the Bennett-Lapid] government and we were able to prevent,” the former prime minister said.
“Because of the judicial overhaul, Netanyahu has lost American attention and the ability to influence. He needs to announce that the overhaul is canceled and do everything he can to stop this deal. We will support such efforts from the opposition, just as we have in the past,” the Yesh Atid leader added.
In response to Lapid’s comments, Netanyahu’s Likud party said that the prime minister’s tough posturing caused the US to leave the original Iran nuclear deal in 2015 and will prevent the US from reentering an agreement now.
Moreover, the statement said that Lapid, having supported the “dangerous” original nuclear deal with Iran and having “handed out gas fields to Hezbollah for free,” is the last person who should criticize this government.
“Contrary to Lapid who promised the US a policy of ‘no surprises,’ Prime Minister Netanyahu was never willing to make such a promise and even made it clear that with or without a deal, Israel would act to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” the statement said.
Despite both leaders vowing to oppose the deal, there are multiple indications Israel will accept the general parameters of the understanding.
The exchange came after the Haaretz daily (Hebrew) quoted a senior Israeli official as saying that the US had been updating Israel on the emerging understandings and that Jerusalem was not trying to foil the talks.
“There is an open and continuous dialogue with the Americans,” the official said, adding that Israel had not been “surprised” by the latest reports on an emerging understanding.
The senior official said that Israel was still studying the developments but was not actively trying to foil them.
“At the moment we are looking at the issues in order to put together a plan how to react,” he said “The emerging plan is not to attack [the agreement,] but to put forward objections.”
The comments echo similar remarks from Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Herzog.
“Diplomacy isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Herzog said during an event hosted by the Democratic Majority For Israel, according to Haaretz.
“As far as we’re concerned, diplomacy in and of itself, and such understandings, are not necessarily bad to the extent that they can help deescalate a situation,” Herzog said.
Earlier this week, Netanyahu informed Israeli officials about the details of a potential nuclear deal between the US and Iran that Israel would be able to accept, according to reports in Hebrew media.
Netanyahu downplayed the US-Iran negotiations as closing in on a “mini-agreement, not an agreement,” the reports by Walla and Channel 13 said, citing several unnamed lawmakers who took part in the closed-door, three-hour meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
“What’s on the agenda at the moment between Washington and Tehran is not a nuclear deal, it’s a mini-deal,” Netanyahu was reported to say. “We will be able to handle it.”
On Thursday, The New York Times reported the understanding would see Tehran pledge not to enrich uranium beyond its current level of 60 percent purity, cooperate with nuclear inspectors from the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), stop its proxy terror groups from attacking US contractors in Iraq and Syria, avoid providing Russia with ballistic missiles and release three American-Iranians held in the Islamic Republic.
In return, Washington would promise not to tighten its existing economic sanctions, unfreeze billions in Iranian assets held abroad alongside assurances that the money will only be used for humanitarian purposes, and not pursue punitive resolutions against the Islamic Republic at the United Nations or at the IAEA.
The United States is not going so far as to call the understanding with Iran an official agreement as that would require congressional approval.
On Thursday, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed expanding bilateral Israel-US cooperation against Iran in a meeting in Europe.
In his meeting with Austin Thursday, Gallant raised the importance to Israel that the interim deal includes a commitment from Iran to cease manufacturing ballistic missiles and attack drones.
