Former head of Israeli military intelligence prefers agreement with Iran to military attack

The former head of Israeli Military Intelligence Amos Yadlin said that reaching a “reasonable agreement” with Iran during the Geneva meeting is better than the military option, even if Iran may breach the agreement, because building an atomic bomb would take Iran at least three years.

Yadlin, who has opposed the military option in recent years, explained how the economic sanctions that have been imposed on Iran, especially in the field of oil exports, have hurt the Iranian economy a lot, which now makes Iran very keen to reach an agreement. He also pointed out that Israel should not oppose the agreement, but instead should ensure that it would prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.

Nevertheless, Yadlin deemed Netanyahu’s fears of lifting the sanctions to be well placed in light of the possible impact that this may have on Iran’s capability to develop nuclear weapons. Netanyahu warned that the current negotiations were about to reach a “bad agreement” and pointed out that Israel is not alone in voicing concern about the direction of the negotiations, because the Iranian file is an international issue, and it poses a problem for the Arab countries as well.

He also thinks that US Secretary of State John Kerry made a mistake when he warned of the possible outbreak of a third intifada if the negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis failed, because the Palestinian Authority believes that an uprising would not be able to achieve anything for them, and prefers to seek solutions at the United Nations and its related organisations.

He added that the chances of reaching a peace agreement as a result of the ongoing negotiations are very slim. When the negotiations encounter a difficult stage, the US will likely intervene and propose their options for peace, but they will not be able to impose any deal on the two sides.