Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu sparred over who is to blame for advances in Iran’s nuclear program.
Netanyahu repeated his criticism of Foreign Minister Yair Lapid for agreeing to “no surprises” with the US when it comes to countering the Iranian threat, in an article for Israel Hayom.
“What will happen if and when the US will return to the nuclear agreement? Does anyone think it will agree to Israeli military actions that will endanger the agreement?” Netanyahu wrote.
The opposition leader said his “friends in the US” expressed concern that Israel’s voice is not heard in the US in opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.
“The answer is simple. The government of surrender says clearly, ‘We will solve the problems with the US behind closed doors,’” Netanyahu wrote. “Instead of speaking in a loud and clear voice to enlist American public opinion in favor of Israel and against a return to the nuclear deal, the current government is doing nothing.”
A source in the Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu was “prime minister for 12 years, up until a month ago, and his neglect was what allowed Iran to reach the most advanced point ever in its nuclear program.”
Last week, Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency that it has taken steps to produce uranium metal enriched to 20%, to be used as reactor fuel. This brings Iran’s nuclear project to a more advanced stage than any country without nuclear weapons is known to have reached.
The source close to Bennett said that “this is the inheritance Bennett received, and from here, he will navigate and fix it with all the tools he has.
“This is a severe failure,” he added. Netanyahu “knows this and is trying to throw the responsibility onto others.”
The source accused Netanyahu of preferring to give speeches with props as part of his Israeli election campaign, rather than take critical action.
“The gap between rhetoric and action has never been greater,” the source said, echoing remarks by Bennett in the Knesset earlier this week.
The US and Iran have been engaged in indirect negotiations to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Iran deal signed in 2015.
The agreement, which restricted Iran’s uranium enrichment and gradually lifted US sanctions on Iran, is set to expire in 2030 and allow Iran to get close to breaking out to a nuclear weapon. The Trump administration left the JCPOA in 2018, opting instead for heavy sanctions to pressure Iran, but the Biden administration began talks with Iran in Vienna in April to return to the deal.
The sixth round of indirect US-Iran negotiations ended in early June, before the presidential election in Iran. Ebrahim Raisi, a judge responsible for thousands of executions and sanctioned by the US for human rights violations, won that election.
The date for the resumption of negotiations, and whether Raisi will opt to continue at all, remain unclear.
“As of today, no one, including Iranians, has an answer to” when the talks will continue, Russian Ambassador to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told Kommersant this week.
Netanyahu’s Likud Party responded to Bennett by quoting remarks he made three years ago that “the future of our children and grandchildren is much safer today than yesterday, and I think that those who mocked and criticized Netanyahu on the Iranian matter should thank him.”
The Likud spokesman added: “Instead of lying and whining, Bennett would be better off canceling the ‘no surprises’ policy today, which Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid committed to, and start on a campaign for American public opinion against a US return to the dangerous Iran deal.”