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# Israel Pushes Hardline in Iran Nuclear Talks
December 15 2021
Written by Medea Benjamin – Ariel Gold.
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WORLD WATCH - After a 5-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the U.S. and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The outlook isn’t good.
Less than a week into negotiations, Britain, France, and Germany [accused](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/03/talks-with-iran-on-restoring-2015-nuclear-deal-suspended) Iran of “walking back almost all of the difficult compromises” achieved during the first round of negotiations before Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, was sworn into office. While such actions by Iran certainly aren’t helping the negotiations succeed, there is another country — one that is not even a party to the agreement that was ripped up in 2018 by then President Donald Trump —whose hardline position is creating obstacles to successful negotiations: Israel.
On Sunday, amid reports that the talks might collapse, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called on the countries in Vienna to [“take a strong line”](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-12-05/israel-urges-hard-line-against-iran-at-nuclear-talks) against Iran. According to Channel 12 news in Israel, Israeli officials are [urging the US](https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-urge-us-to-act-militarily-against-iran-amid-stalled-nuke-talks-reports/)to take military action against Iran, either by striking Iran directly or by hitting an Iranian base in Yemen. Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, Israel says that it reserves the right to take [military](https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-warns-nuke-deal-wont-stop-iran-from-getting-bomb-within-5-years/) action against Iran.
Israeli threats aren’t just bluster. Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were [assassinated, presumably by Israel](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/1/past-and-present-israels-targeting-of-irans-nuclear-aspiration). In July 2020, a fire, [attributed](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/05/world/middleeast/iran-Natanz-nuclear-damage.html)to an Israeli bomb, caused significant damage to Iran’s Natanz nuclear site. In November 2020, shortly after Joe Biden won the presidential election, Israeli operatives used remote control machine guns to [assassinate](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/politics/iran-scientist-israel-assassination-us/index.html) Iran’s top nuclear scientist. Had Iran retaliated proportionately, the US might have backed up Israel, with the conflict spiraling into a full-blown US-Middle East war.
In April 2021, as diplomatic efforts were underway between the Biden administration and Iran, sabotage attributed to Israel caused a [blackout](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/11/world/middleeast/iran-nuclear-natanz.html) at the Natanz. Iran described the action as “nuclear terrorism.”
Ironically [described](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/21/us/politics/iran-nuclear-standoff.html) as Iran’s Build Back Better plan, after each of Israel’s nuclear facility sabotage actions, Iranians have quickly gotten their facilities [back online](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/21/us/politics/iran-nuclear-standoff.html) and even installed newer machines to more rapidly enrich uranium. As a result, American officials recently [warned](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/21/us/politics/iran-nuclear-standoff.html) their Israeli counterparts that the attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities are counterproductive. But Israel [replied](https://www.timesofisrael.com/nyt-us-warns-israel-attacks-on-iran-nuclear-program-are-counterproductive/)that it has no intention of letting up.
As the clock runs out to reseal the JCPOA, Israel is [sending its top-level officials out](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/5/israels-bennett-urges-stron-line-against-iran-at-nuclear-talks) to make its case. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was in London and Paris last week asking them not to support US intentions to return to the deal. This week, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea are in Washington for meetings with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and CIA officials. According to the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Barnea [brought](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/5/israels-bennett-urges-stron-line-against-iran-at-nuclear-talks) “updated intelligence on Tehran’s efforts” to become a nuclear country.
Along with verbal appeals, Israel is preparing militarily. They have [allocated $1.5 billion](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-59322152) for a potential strike against Iran. Throughout October and November, they held [large-scale military exercises](https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/israeli-military-readying-for-plan-b-if-iran-nuclear-talks-fail-687220) in preparation for strikes against Iran and this spring they plan to hold one of their [largest strike simulation drills](https://www.timesofisrael.com/report-israel-to-launch-major-exercise-this-spring-simulating-strike-on-iran/) ever, using dozens of aircraft, including Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet.
The U.S. is also readying for the possibility of violence. A week prior to the negotiations resuming in Vienna, the US’s top commander in the Middle East, General Kenneth McKenzie, [announced](https://time.com/6123380/iran-near-nuclear-weapon-capability/) that his forces were on standby for potential military actions should the negotiations collapse. Yesterday, it was [reported](https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-u-s-defense-chiefs-to-discuss-military-drill-simulating-iran-strike-1.10451768) that Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s meeting with Lloyd Austin would include discussing possible joint US-Israeli military drills simulating the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Stakes are high for the talks to succeed. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed this month that Iran is now [enriching uranium up to 20 percent purity](https://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-starts-enriching-uranium-at-fordo-plant-amid-nuclear-talks-in-further-breach/) at its underground facility at Fordo, a site where the JCPOA forbids enrichment. [According to the IAEA](https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iaea-confirms-iran-has-started-enriching-uranium-60-purity-2021-04-17/), since Trump pulled the US out of the JCPOA, Iran has furthered its uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity (compared with[ 3.67%](https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-08-05/iran-swears-in-hard-line-new-president) under the deal), steadily moving closer to the 90 percent needed for a nuclear weapon. In September, the Institute for Science and International Security [issued a report](https://isis-online.org/isis-reports/detail/analysis-of-iaea-iran-verification-and-monitoring-report-september-2021/) that, under the “worst-case breakout estimate,” within a month Iran could produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
The U.S. exit from the JCPOA has not only led to the nightmarish prospect of another Middle East country becoming a nuclear state (Israel reportedly [has](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Israel#:~:text=Estimates%20of%20Israel's%20stockpile%20range,to%20intercontinental%20range%20ballistic%20missiles.)between 80 and 400 nuclear weapons), but it has already inflicted enormous damage on the Iranian people. The “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign — originally Trump’s but now under the ownership of Joe Biden — has plagued Iranians with [runaway inflation](https://www.iranintl.com/en/20211129429660), skyrocketing food, rent, and medicine prices, and a crippled [healthcare sector](https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/46/50). Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, US sanctions were[ preventing](https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/10/29/maximum-pressure/us-economic-sanctions-harm-iranians-right-health) Iran from importing necessary medicines to treat such illnesses as leukemia and epilepsy. In January 2021, the United Nations released a [report](https://undocs.org/en/A/HRC/46/50) stating that U.S. sanctions on Iran were contributing to an “inadequate and opaque” response to COVID-19. With more than 130,000 officially registered deaths so far, Iran has the [highest](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/6/iran-imposes-restrictions-on-unvaccinated-in-new-covid-plan) number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the Middle East. And officials say that real numbers are likely even higher.
If the U.S. and Iran are not able to reach an agreement, the worst-case scenario will be a new U.S.-Middle East war. Reflecting on the abject failures and destruction wrecked by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, a war with Iran would be catastrophic. One would think that Israel, which receives $3.8 billion annually from the U.S., would feel obligated not to drag the U.S. and their own people into such a disaster. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Though teetering on the brink of collapse, talks resumed again this week. Iran, now under a hard-line government that U.S. sanctions helped bring into power, has shown that it isn’t going to be an acquiescent negotiator and Israel is hell-bent on sabotaging the talks. This means it’s going to take bold diplomacy and a willingness to compromise from the Biden administration to get the deal resealed. Let’s hope Biden and his negotiators have the will and courage to do that.
*(Medea Benjamin is cofounder of* [*CODEPINK for Peace*](https://www.codepink.org/)*, and author of several books, including* [*Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the US-Saudi Connection*](https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/kingdom-of-the-unjust-by-medea-benjamin/)*. Ariel Gold is the national co-director of CODEPINK and runs the organization’s Middle East Program. This article was featured in CounterPunch.)*
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