Israel issued a bleak warning to the United States recently, highlighting that Iran is on the verge of becoming a nuclear threshold state and begin to manufacture atomic weapons, according to national broadcaster Kan.
Talks between world powers and Iran on a return to the 2015 nuclear deal abandoned by former U.S. president Donald Trump — attended indirectly by the Biden administration — have been ongoing for months in Vienna, but have stalled in recent weeks.
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A missile unveiled by Iran is launched in an unknown location in Iran
(Photo: Reuters)
Several senior Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz relayed a message of concern to their U.S. counterparts - Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
"Something needs to happen regarding the negotiations with Iran," said a senior Israeli diplomat. "This ‘limbo’ cannot continue a time when Iran is advancing rapidly to the point where it is a threshold state.”
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Foreign Minister Yair Lapid meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
(Photo: AP)
The Islamic Republic took the view in 2018 that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was void after Trump withdrew from the deal claiming that Iran was in breach of the agreed-upon nuclear thresholds and worries over its ballistic missile program.
Israel has consistently warned the United States and the international community about Iran's atomic ambitions, including IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi's recent Washington trip to brief U.S. officials, where he torched the plan to return the nuclear deal.