Report: US Tells Israel the Nuclear Deal With Iran Is Off the Table for Now

The message was conveyed to Israeli PM Lapid in recent conversations with Biden and other US officials

 by Dave DeCamp 

Posted on September 7, 2022

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/09/07/report-us-tells-israel-the-nuclear-deal-with-iran-is-off-the-table-for-now/

The Israeli news website Zman Yisrael said it has “learned” that a new nuclear deal between the US and Iran is off the table and will not be signed in the “foreseeable future.”

Zman Yisrael didn’t cite any sources but said that this message had been conveyed to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid in recent conversations with President Biden and other US officials.

Prospects for a revival of the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, seemed unlikely after the US slammed Iran’s latest response in the ongoing negotiations as “not encouraging” and “moving backward.”

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrel, has been brokering the negotiations, but said on Monday that he thinks the deal is “in danger.” The comments marked Borrel’s most pessimistic remarks about the talks they were recently restarted by the EU.

Israel strongly opposed the deal and has been pressuring the US to scrap negotiations. Lapid said on Tuesday that it was still “too early” to know if the pressure has worked and issued a new threat against Iran.

Lapid said Israel must do what it takes to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. But if that were his concern, he should favor a revival of the JCPOA as it puts Iran’s civilian nuclear program under strict limits and makes it subject to the most intrusive inspections worldwide.

Lapid is expected to play up the fact that he averted a new Iran deal by pressuring the US as part of his election campaign. Israel’s election will be held on November 1, and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a contender. Lapid criticized Netanyahu’s confrontational approach to the Obama administration when the JCPOA was first negotiated in 2015.