The alternative plan to talks: on Iran’s nuclear deal

Israeli media is currently promoting an alternative plan for the country’s leaders in the event the Vienna negotiations fail, and it is trying hard to drag Washington and European states into it. It believes that now is the right time to move Tehran away from its political positions and push it to accept concessions on its missile programme and its regional role. The question here is, what is this alternative plan?

Israeli news site Kan has revealed important details of the visit by Benny Gantz and Mossad chief David “Dadi” Barnea to Washington, and noted that they have an alternative plan that Washington can start implementing to force Tehran to change its behaviour and make concessions in its nuclear file. This is after senior White House officials refused to have military strikes launched on Iranian nuclear facilities. They reported that the Israeli alternative plan includes striking Iranian command and control centres and military sites in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, saying this will force Tehran’s leaders to make concessions on various issues raised in the Vienna negotiations.

Gantz and Barnea have implied that Israel is ready to implement the alternative plan if Washington refuses to do so, and that there are leaders in Congress who see the importance of taking more decisive steps to push Tehran to make concessions, including threatening to use military power. This means that the coming period will witness a security escalation in a number of already unstable Arab countries.

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The alternative plan will be on Arab land, and in the current areas of conflict, namely Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, and may extend to Libya and Arab African countries. Settling disputes in Vienna will be stained with the blood of the Arabs and at the expense of our security and future. Israel’s leaders are seeking an option which destroys Arab states out of fear of direct confrontation with Tehran and the possible intervention of Russia and China.

Moreover, the alternative plan means heating up the current security confrontation fronts, and it means dragging Washington and the capitals of Europe to directly interfere to uproot Iranian influence by force from Yemen, Iraq, etc. What comes next will force Tehran to reconsider its regional calculations and give in to the demands of the international community in all the files raised in the Vienna negotiations. This raises the question: Have our countries turned into football pitches, racecourses where scores can be settled at our expense and with our money?

Israel and Iran are testing their power and their areas of influence with fire in our countries that are burdened with open wars. It wouldn’t be surprising if Turkey joined in and took its share. Russia may believe that resolving the problem with the US and Europe regarding Ukraine lies in conducting exercises with live ammunition in our Arab states, meaning that we, along with our states, lands and people are being violated by all of the regional and international conflicting forces and that the settlement of differences between them begins and ends with Arab blood.

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This article first appeared in Arabic in Addustour on 7 December 2021

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.