PM: Deal that doesn’t halt Iran’s nuclear program just grants money for terror

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reasserts Israel’s opposition to any arrangement that doesn’t completely halt the Iranian nuclear program, in response to reports that a tentative prisoner swap agreement between Iran and the United States could facilitate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Israel’s position is known. According to it, arrangements that don’t disassemble Iran’s nuclear infrastructure won’t stop their nuclear program and only grants them money that will go to Iran’s terror proxies,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.

Officials believe that Iran has slowed its enrichment of nearly weapons-grade uranium and reduced a small amount of its stockpile, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday, a day after Tehran said it had reached a tentative agreement with Washington that will eventually see five detained Americans in Iran and an unknown number of Iranians imprisoned in the US released from custody.

Two senior Israeli defense officials told The New York Times Thursday the prisoner deal stems from agreements worked out between the US and Iran during indirect talks in Oman.

The prisoner agreement could also facilitate further diplomacy between the two countries, as the Biden administration looks to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the report said.