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Israeli intelligence head warns Netanyahu about dumping Iran nuclear deal

January 21, 2017 at 1:12 pm

The former head of Israeli military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, has warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against putting pressure on the new US president to undo the nuclear deal with Iran because this would have dangerous consequences, Haaretz reported on Friday.

The newspaper said that Donald Trump seems as if he is planning to change the international agenda and the style of decision-making in Washington. It noted that he has already pledged to undo the nuclear deal with Iran as president.

According to Haaretz, Netanyahu said last month that he had at least five ideas to dump the nuclear deal. He apparently said that he would reveal them to Trump when he meets him. The Israeli newspaper expects Netanyahu to be one of the first foreign officials to meet with the new US president.

“The cancellation of the agreement will negate the legitimacy of our positions in the international community,” said Yadlin, who is currently the executive director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. “When a conflict with Iran develops, the other powers will blame us for dragging Trump into doing this. They will not come to our aid.”

The newspaper pointed out that the Israeli intelligence committees heavily criticised the deal regarding what they called “flaws” when it was announced in 2015. After eighteen months, though, they have seen that it is holding firm and Iran is complying with its terms.

Yadlin told Haaretz that cancelling the deal could cause relationship problems with the five states which signed it along with the US, particularly Russia and China. It could also lead Iran to re-start its nuclear programme, a development that would not be in Israel’s best interests.