Israel to push for better Iran nuclear deal

Telegraph

Israel has expressed its “grave concerns” that the West was poised to sign a deal with Iran over its nuclear programme that would give it “practically nothing” in return.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments came as negotiators prepared to return to Geneva on Wednesday where a first-step deal looks likely to be agreed upon, breaking a decade-long impasse.

The Israeli prime minister said he still hoped that “we will be able to persuade our friends during this week and in the days that follow to get a much better agreement.”

“I’m concerned, gravely concerned, that this deal will go through and in one stroke of the pen, it will reduce the sanctions on Iran – sanctions that took years to put in place – and in return for this, Iran gives practically nothing,” he said.

Both the White House and the Russian foreign minister have expressed optimism that a deal can be signed that would partially freeze Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, creating a six-month window in which to try an negotiate a comprehensive deal.

Mr Netanyahu has already rejected US assurances that sanctions relief can be rapidly withdrawn in the event that – as Israel suspects – it becomes clear that Tehran is not serious about giving up its ambition to become a nuclear-weapon capable state.

Israel has argued that only increased sanctions will keep sufficient pressure on Tehran to cut a meaningful deal, while Mr Obama countered last week that the Israeli uncompromising approach – which many hawks in the US Congress also support – threatens to derail a historic opportunity.

"If you do a bad deal, you may get to the point where your only option is a military option," Mr Netanyahu said in an interview with CNN.

Talks broke up without a deal earlier this month, reportedly over French objections that Iran was to be allowed to continue building their plutonium reactor at Arak during the interim deal period – a point of contention that the White House now says is resolved.

François Hollande, the French president, was in Israel on Sunday, where he sought to reassure Mr Netanyahu that Paris would not allow Iran to use the interim deal to trick its way to building a bomb.

"France will not make concessions on nuclear proliferation," Mr Hollande said. "France will maintain all its measures and sanctions until we are certain that Iran has renounced nuclear weapons."

"We want an agreement," he added. "This agreement can be obtained but is only possible if Iran renounces nuclear weapons."

Despite the optimism in Washington and Moscow, negotiators on the Iranian side said on Sunday that the coming talks would be "difficult", reiterating their position that Iran has a right to enrich uranium.

"No agreement will be reached without securing the rights of the Iranian nation" on its nuclear programme and uranium enrichment, Abbas Araqchi, the Iranian negotiation and its deputy foreign minister, told the official IRNA news agency.

Opponents of the deal, including Israel, say that Iran should give up all enrichment, a position that US and British negotiators privately accept is unrealistic given the reality of Iran's huge nuclear advance over the last decade.

However in a possible fix to this sticking point, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister, said that while his country has a right to enrich uranium, it was not insisting other nations recognise the entitlement.