A visit to Washington, calls to Macron, invitations to the international press: Israel launches a “last-minute” offensive to try to convince the West not to renew the deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

“Western powers should stop negotiations because the deal will allow Iran to earn billions of dollars and destabilize the Middle East,” the prime minister said. Yair Lapid.

Lapid, who is campaigning for Israeli parliamentary elections on November 1, sent his national security adviser to Washington this week.

And the secretary of defense Benny Ganz He will fly to the American capital early tomorrow morning to discuss, among other things, the Iranian nuclear program, his teams told AFP.

Iran’s Enemy No. 1, Israel welcomed the 2018 United States disengagement. Donald Trump from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, but is now wary of renewing the agreement as negotiations seem to be accelerating.

Washington said this week that Tehran was making concessions. And today, the US confirmed that it has sent the European Union its response to a plan aimed at resurrecting the 2015 deal.

Iran is no longer blocking some International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, according to a senior US official, although it previously demanded that the UN agency stop investigating undeclared objects or found traces of enriched uranium.

OUR Tehran he also waived another demand related to the abolition of the “terrorist organization” status of the Revolutionary Guards, its ideological army.

However, Israel continues to oppose reopening the deal, especially if it means lifting economic sanctions against Tehran.

“What’s on the table right now is a bad deal. This will give Iran $100 billion a year. This money will not be used to build schools or hospitals, but to destabilize the Middle East by strengthening Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” Lapid said, without explaining the basis of this figure.

“In our opinion, the agreement does not meet the criteria set by President Biden himself: to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power,” the prime minister said at a meeting with foreign press in Jerusalem. A senior Israeli official chided the draft agreement for failing to destroy concentration devices and therefore allowing Tehran to “reactivate” them whenever it sees fit.

For the leader of the opposition Benjamin Netanyahu, Lapid’s main opponent in the upcoming parliamentary elections, this agreement “allows Iran to take everything and give nothing away.” Speaking at a press conference, the former prime minister said on the Iranian issue that “there is no difference between the right and the left.”

In recent days, Lapid called the President of France Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor of Germany Olaf Soltz not sign an agreement with Tehran.

Former prime minister Naftali Benneta hardliner against Tehran, on Tuesday urged US President Joe Biden “to refrain, even at this last minute, from signing an agreement with Iran.”

AFP