The results of Iran’s presidential election show the world must act to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the opening of his government’s first Sunday cabinet meeting.
Ebrahim Raisi, a judge responsible for tens of thousands of executions and who is under US sanctions for human-rights abuses, was elected president of Iran on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the final meeting of the sixth round of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran over a return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal took place in Vienna on Sunday.
“Raisi’s election as president of Iran is a signal to world powers that they need to wake up,” Bennett said. “This may be the last signal a moment before returning to the Iran deal. They must understand who they’re doing business with and what kind of regime they are choosing to strengthen.”
“A regime of executioners cannot have weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
When asked about Bennett’s comments on ABC’s This Week, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said: “What we need to do in the US is keep our eye on the ball, [and] our paramount priority right now is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.”
Amid warnings from Israel over the election of Ebrahim Raisi in Iran, National Security adviser Jake Sullivan tells @GStephanopoulos the U.S. "paramount priority" is "to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon." https://t.co/PrcCGugq6i pic.twitter.com/9BctR2fseF
— ABC News (@ABC) June 20, 2021
"We believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve that, rather than military conflict,” he added. “So we are going to negotiate in a clear-eyed, firm way with Iran to see if we can arrive at an outcome that can put their nuclear program in a box. And in that regard, whether the president is ‘Person A’ or ‘Person B’ is less relevant than whether their entire system is prepared to make verifiable commitments to constrain the nuclear program.”
Regarding the Israeli political situation, Bennett said the key to success in a unity government is mutual trust through open lines of communication to solve problems “quietly, without drama.”
“We are here to serve the people... We are not the bosses of the citizens of Israel; we work for them,” he said. “That is the spirit among all members of the government.”
The cabinet authorized regulations for the government’s work, which include the order for cabinet meetings, discussions and decision-making promises.
This is a standard decision for any new government as mandated by Basic Law: Government. But the previous one, led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Defense Minister Benny Gantz serving as alternate prime minister, never did so.
Bennett said the new government’s ministers are “full of willingness to act and make progress.”
Marking the ninth anniversary of the death of former prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, Bennett said Shamir presided over a government composed of right- and left-wing parties.
“By all accounts, Yitzhak Shamir was distinctly right-wing,” he said. “There is a time for everything. This is a time for unity, and unity is itself a critical goal… The public knows our ability to work together will allow us to do good things. We will be inspired by Yitzhak Shamir.”
Bennett said he planned to assess the impact of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in light of the two coronavirus breakouts in schools in Modi’in and Binyamina.
“This came from people returning from abroad not strictly keeping to quarantines, and professionals have assessed, though it is still not certain, that this is the Indian variant,” Bennett said. “Last night, we held a brief meeting, and today we will hold a meeting with relevant ministers, professionals and the National Security Council to assess the situation in relation to the Indian variant and the way people enter and leave the country, and we will update the public.”
Bennett said Israel’s strategy could not only depend on vaccines.
“If there’s a variant that circumvents vaccines tomorrow, everything will collapse,” he said. “We have vaccines but are also working on the assumption that there will not be a vaccine for every pandemic or variant. We need, with correct management, to avoid losing control.”
The cabinet voted in favor of 36 professional appointments of ambassadors and consuls-general to be posted around the world.
Earlier Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Foreign Service Appointments approved the diplomats for the top positions in Thailand, Sweden, the Vatican, Senegal, Panama, EU institutions in Brussels, Japan and more.
The diplomatic appointments had been delayed by six months in the previous government and were the subject of a lawsuit earlier this month.
“This is something that was stuck for a long time,” Bennett said, adding that Foreign Minister Yair Lapid “opened up the traffic jam, and we are on our way.”
“The appointments we authorized today waited too long,” Lapid said. “The State of Israel needs the best people to fight for its good name in the world. These are some of the best professionals in Israel who are a significant and critical part of strengthening Israel’s diplomatic and security status.”