As the negotiations of the Iranian nuclear deal take place in Vienna, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke Dec. 1 with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and told him that Iran was utilizing “nuclear blackmail” as a negotiation tactic, and therefore the United States should initiate “an immediate cessation of negotiations.” Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also met this week, on Nov. 30, in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, and emphasized to him that Iran is trying to delay negotiations in order to advance its nuclear program and pointed to the immediate need to return to tough sanctions.
Bennett’s statement followed a report published Dec. 1 by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran has started to enrich uranium to a 20% purity level using advanced centrifuges at the subterranean Fordow facility. They express Israel’s official position that the nuclear deal with Iran is bad and that the powers should stop negotiations immediately.