US official says deal never aimed to address Iran terror support

WASHINGTON — The United States never considered addressing in the nuclear agreement with Iran the issue of Tehran’s sponsorship of terrorism and its calls for Israel’s annihilation, a senior US administration says.

Israel knew this all along but then decided to turn these issues into make-or-break conditions for support of the deal, the official tells Israeli reporters.

Jerusalem’s insistence that any deal address these issues would have killed any prospect of reaching an agreement, the senior official continues, adding that the conditions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined in his contentious Congress speech in March made plain that Israel would object to any nuclear deal with Iran.

“This has been a nuclear negotiation for over two years with the P5+1 and Iran, with very vigorous consultations with successive Israeli governments about the details of that negotiation,” the senior official says, referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. “Frankly, in none of our conversations with Israel over the years about the Iran nuclear negotiations were we contemplating bringing in those other elements of Iranian behavior.”

Iranian nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi had a different take on the matter, telling Iranian journalists on Saturday: “We said during the talks that we cannot not provide weapons to Hezbollah, and we are not willing to sacrifice them for our nuclear program. Therefore, if you want to keep the weapon sanctions as part of the agreement, we will continue with our efforts. We discussed this matter for a while.”

— Raphael Ahren with Times of Israel staff