Lithuania calls for stronger Israel-EU cooperation on Iran

Lithuania’s foreign minister on Monday called for stronger cooperation between Jerusalem and the European Union on Iran’s nuclear ambitions, saying his visit to Israel this week has opened his eyes about problematic aspects of the nuclear agreement the international community reached with Tehran in 2015.

“I told [my Israeli interlocutors] that many think the Iranian deal is a way to mitigate the problem [of Iran’s nuclear ambitions] through engagement, but here I heard a lot of criticism of the Iranian deal. We need to put all the arguments on the table and to look at them very carefully. Otherwise it will be very difficult to find a common approach,” Linas Linkevičius tells The Times of Israel.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius in Jerusalem, September 4, 2017. (Haim Zach/GPO)

“For me it was a bit new to hear about holes in the agreement, doubts about the implementation, doubts about [Iran] continuing the nuclear program regardless of what was agreed,” he says.

Linkevičius, who has been Lithuania’s foreign minister since 2012, met this week with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and other senior officials and security analysts.

— Raphael Ahren

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