Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
14-10-2021
JERUSALEM: Israel “reserves the right” to act against Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has said, suggesting that “force” may be necessary to stop the Iranian nuclear program.
Speaking at a joint news conference in Washington, DC with his Emirati and US counterparts on Wednesday, Lapid said the “civilized world” should make it clear that Iran will not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.
“Secretary of State (Antony) Blinken and I are sons of Holocaust survivors; we know there are moments when nations must use force to protect the world from evil,” Lapid said.
Lapid’s remarks came at a time when indirect talks between Washington and Tehran to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are on pause, with the Biden administration calling for negotiations to resume as soon as possible.
The multilateral agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saw Iran scale back its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions against its economy.
Lapid said Iranians will “race to the bomb” if they do not believe that the world is serious about stopping them. “Israel reserves the right to act at any given moment in any way,” he said. “That is not only our right; it is also our responsibility.”
Iranian officials deny that the country is looking to build a nuclear bomb. Israel’s critics often point out that the country is suspected to have its own covert nuclear arsenal and that unlike Iran, Israel is not a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
‘Diplomatic path’
On Wednesday, Blinken reiterated the US administration’s support for a “diplomatic path” to resolve concerns about Iran’s nuclear program, but he said Tehran’s lack of response to Washington’s calls for talks has not been encouraging.
“It takes two to engage in diplomacy,” Blinken said, cautioning that time is running out to revive the deal. “We’re getting closer to a point at which returning to compliance with the JCPOA will not in and of itself recapture the benefits of the JCPOA,” he added.
Former US President Donald Trump nixed the nuclear deal in 2018 as part of his “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran, under which the US piled sanctions on the country. In response, the Iranian government pushed its nuclear program beyond the limits set by the agreement.
The Biden administration has said it is seeking to restore the deal, but six rounds of talks in Vienna have failed to revive it. The negotiations have been paused since June with the election of conservative Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
For weeks, the Biden administration has been floating the prospect of “other options” to address Iran’s nuclear program, without elaborating on what those are. On Wednesday, Blinken said the US and its partners would look at “every option to deal with the challenge posed by Iran”.
“To be very clear, Israel has the right to defend itself, and we strongly support that proposition,” Blinken said in response to a question about Israeli posture towards Iran.
Iran has blamed Israel for a sabotage campaign against its nuclear program, including cyberattacks and assassination of nuclear scientists.
Normalization
Wednesday’s joint news conference between the top diplomats of US, UAE and Israel came shortly after the first anniversary of normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab states.
UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced that he would soon visit Israel at Lapid’s invitation, calling his Israeli counterpart “a friend and a partner”.
At a joint news conference with Angela Merkel earlier this week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett pushed back against the German chancellor’s call for Palestinians to “live securely” in their own state.
“Based on our experience, the meaning of a Palestinian state means that very likely there will be established a terror state, roughly seven minutes from my house and from almost any point in Israel,” said Bennett. (Al Jazeera)
