Israel to present US with new strategy to deal with Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will present the US with a new strategy on how to deal with Iran, the Times of Israel reported yesterday.

Bennett is due to meet US President Joe Biden in Washington on Thursday. A diplomatic source reported by the Israeli daily said: “The heart of the diplomatic discussion will deal with Iran.”

He added: “When we began to plan the visit, a return to the agreement seemed certain. Since then, time has passed, the president in Iran has changed, and things seem far less certain. In our view, it may be that there is no return to the agreement.”

The sources said that Bennett will argue that Iran’s nuclear programme has advanced too far for the deal, which is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to have any relevance in 2021. As a result, the lifting of sanctions is too much of a concession, he explained.

“There is no value to returning to the nuclear deal,” the official said, noting that Bennett’s government inherited Iran, which “is working extremely aggressively and is empowering very negative forces in the region.”

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