Washington responded yesterday to the European Union's proposal for a nuclear pact with Iran to rescue the agreement reached in 2015 between world powers and Tehran, an agreement suspended for four years due to the unilateral rejection of then-President Donald Trump. The Iranian Executive was studying the response of the Joe Biden government last night while the Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, pressured the United States and the EU not to sign the pact. The deal would lift harsh economic sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic in exchange for its agreeing to close international supervision of its nuclear program in order to prevent it from building the atomic bomb.
Biden's team issued its response to Brussels, which in turn sent it to Tehran, without making its contents public. She did so while trying to soften Israeli rulers over the possibility of a deal with Iran. To this end, the US National Security Adviser on Tuesday conveyed to his Israeli counterpart, Eyal Hulata, "his commitment that Iran will never obtain nuclear weapons" and Biden's "firm" support regarding "the ability to Israel to deter its enemies and defend itself against any threat, including Iran and its allies."
But Lapid was inflexible, and yesterday he urged Western leaders to renounce the "bad deal" they have on the table, in his opinion the result of manipulation by the Iranians that Biden and his allies would have meekly consented to. The draft agreement, he argued, does not meet the condition set by Biden himself: "Prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state," he said.
Lapid added that the deal would provide Tehran with a windfall that it would invest in strengthening its nuclear program and funding dangerous organizations in the region, several of which operate on Israel's borders; specifically, the removal of the current sanctions on Iran is equivalent, according to Lapid, to a check of 100,000 million dollars a year “to destabilize the Middle East”. The Israeli ruler also warned that the possible pact "does not bind Israel", that "it will act to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear state".
Lapid and his government are supported in the United States by some Democrats and not a few Republicans. Like ultra-conservative Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who called the deal “catastrophic” and vowed to work to ensure it is blocked and ultimately reversed.
In the Western bloc, on the other hand, it is feared that Russia, one of the powers involved in the 2015 agreement but now marginalized by the invasion of Ukraine, will take advantage of the end of sanctions on Iran to intensify its transactions with this country, including those of oil and weapons. On the other hand, Iran could take the opportunity to fill the void left by Russia in the European oil market by virtue of the sanctions on Moscow.
On Wednesday, Iran began exercises to test drones that the US fears it may supply to Russia and Russia will use in Ukraine. And the US military announced its airstrikes in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor against facilities allegedly used by groups affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps. Tehran has denied any involvement with the target of the attack, and the Pentagon has said its action is not related to negotiations for a possible nuclear deal with Iran.
