Israel is concerned about the emerging details of a nuclear deal between the United States and Iran, which is said to resemble the same deal that President Barack Obama reached in 2015 and Donald Trump left in 2018.
When he took the U.S. out of the Iran deal in 2018, Trump noted the weakness of the agreement, which gave Iran billions of dollars in cash and sanctions relief without preventing it from becoming a nuclear power, or stopping its support for terrorism. He has frequently cited that decision as more important for U.S.-Israel relations than moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.
Reports suggest that a new deal will merely ask Iran to stop enriching uranium, rather than to destroy its enrichment program; and that it will extend the sunset clauses from 10 years to 25 years, allowing Iran to become a nuclear power some time after Trump leaves office.
There is also no sign of a commitment by Iran to stop supporting its terrorist proxies, or to commit to improvements in human rights. Moreover, Iran is pushing to maintain large portions of its ballistic missile program, which it used to attack Israel last year.
Reuters, via the Times of Israel reported:
An initial framework under discussion preserves the core of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was scrapped by Trump in 2018 during his first term, eight sources said.
A deal may not look radically different from the former pact, which he called the worst in history, but would extend duration to 25 years, tighten verification, and expand so-called sunset clauses that pause but do not completely dismantle aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, all the sources said.
…
“Essentially, the negotiations are shaping into a ‘JCPOA 2’ with some additions that would allow Trump to present it as a victory, while Iran could still keep its right to enrichment,” [a] senior Iranian official said.
Another sticking point relates to Iran’s ballistic missile manufacturing capacity. Washington and Israel say Iran should stop making missiles. Iran counters that it has a right to self-defense. One Iranian official previously told Reuters it would not go beyond the requirements of the 2015 deal, offering only to avoid building missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads as a “gesture of goodwill.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that no deal is better than a bad deal, and would prefer military action to an agreement that allows Iran to keep its nuclear enrichment and missile capacity. Israel also worries that any sanctions relief that Iran receives as part of a deal would be used, as in the past, to fund terror.
An Israeli government official who spoke to Breitbart News said Friday that the Trump administration was making a mistake by negotiating with a genocidal regime, and also expressed concern about divisions within the administration.
“From here, it looks like there’s a power struggle to decide whether it’s Tucker Carlson or Marco Rubio in charge of foreign policy,” the official said, “and it’s very disconcerting as a U.S. ally to watch this.”
Carlson has been outspoken against any U.S. involvement in, or support for, military action against Iran. When Netanyahu visited the White House last month, Carlson posted that the U.S. should refuse military action against Iran, claiming that Americans would die and that the U.S. would “lose the war that follows.”
Carlson is a close ally of the president with significant influence on personnel decisions. He was once a supporter of Israel but has become a sharp critic, even featuring a Holocaust revisionist on his media show.
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, a strong supporter of Israel, was moved out on Thursday, with the president saying that he would be appointed UN Ambassador. Trump placed Secretary of State Rubio, who is also a strong supporter of Israel, in charge of the National Security Council for the time being.
Israel may decide to strike Iran independently if President Trump approves a weak Iran deal, which would risk ties with the U.S. but which many Israelis believe would be the only way to stop Iran’s nuclear advance.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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