MENA WATCH: WE ACCEPT NEW OBAMA DEAL – Gantz: Israel can ‘live with’ new Iran nuclear deal

Defense Minister Benny Gantz tells Foreign Policy journal that he can “accept” US approach of “putting Iran back in its box,” but wants to see a “viable Plan B.”

By  ILH Staff , Erez Linn ISRAEL HAYOM  15.9.2021

Israel can live with a new nuclear deal between Iran and western countries, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in an interview to Foreign Policy this week.

“The current US approach of putting the Iran nuclear program back in a box, I’d accept that,” Gantz said, but noted that Israel would want to see the US lead a “viable Plan B” if negotiations with Iran failed.
Gantz said the Plan B should include political, diplomatic, and economic pressure on Iran from the US, Europe, Russia, and China.According to Gantz, Iran needs to know that the US and its partners are “serious,” and fear them.
At end end of August, US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at their first meeting in Washington that diplomacy was his first option vis-à-vis Iran, but he would consider other options if his effort to revive the nuclear deal failed.

“We are going to discuss the threat from Iran and our commitment to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon. We’re putting diplomacy first and seeing where that takes us. But if diplomacy fails, we’re ready to turn to other options,” Biden said without elaborating.

He stressed to Bennet the US commitment to ensuring Iran never developed a nuclear weapon.

Bennet seemed pleased with the pledge, saying, “I was happy to hear your clear words that Iran will never be able to acquire a nuclear weapon. You emphasized that you’ll try the diplomatic route but there are other options if that doesn’t work out.”