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White House adviser says US and Israel need 'common strategy' amid negotiations on reviving Iran nuclear deal
The United States and need a “common strategy” as, said the White House's national securityadviser Wednesday.
spoke ahead of a meeting with and other Israeli security officials in Jerusalem.
He said the meeting came at a “critical juncture for both of our countries on a major set of security issues."
World powers and Iran renewed negotiations in last month to restore an agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program. Negotiations took a pause last week to allow Iran’s negotiator to return to Tehran for consultations.
Bennett said that “what happens in Vienna has profound ramifications for the stability of the Middle East and the security of Israel for the upcoming years.”
The original deal, struck in 2015, offered Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. The agreement unravelled after the unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since then, Iran has resumed its nuclear program, enriching uranium and operating centrifuges beyond the limits of the deal.
has been critical of the attempts to reach a new deal with Iran, saying the international community is giving in to “nuclear blackmail”. It says any new agreement must make improvements over the original deal, and that the talks must be accompanied by a “credible” threat by the USto use military force against Iran if necessary.
Israel considers Iran its regional arch-enemy and says it will take any steps needed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes.
On Wednesday, Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth published an interview with the incoming Israeli Air Force commander, who said Israel was capable of attacking Iran tomorrow and destroying its nuclear facilities.
“There is no situation in which we operate there and I don’t come home and say, ‘I carried out the mission,’” MajorGeneralTomer Bar said.