Austria's new Chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, addressed the resumption of the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the Western powers in Vienna and stated that the correct way to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear program is a new diplomatic agreement.
In an interview with Israel Hayom, Shallenberg said, "We have serious problems with the Iranian leadership, for example in the context of Holocaust denial. We made it very clear to them. However, the negotiations are an attempt to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. It has been shown that the absence of an agreement is worse than the existence of an imperfect agreement. Of course, the nuclear deal is not perfect. There are areas, such as missile program development, that are not included at all. But, as the saying goes: a sparrow in the hand is better than the pigeon on the roof."
"Recent years have shown that the period of the halting of the implementation of the agreement has shortened, according to experts, the time Iran needs to acquire nuclear weapons. The last thing the international community is interested in is a nuclear arms race in the Gulf region. It will cause great instability for all of us. I understand the skeptical voices in Israel regarding the agreement. But history shows that the lack of dialogue does not lead to results and our goal should be to bring Iran into the framework of a supervisory agreement on behalf of the International Atomic Energy Agency, so that we can see what they are doing. Without this, we have no option but to monitor them.
He admitted that he had not imagined becoming Chancellor of Austria, but circumstances led the professional diplomat to replace Sebastian Kurz after Kurz resigned as chancellor last month amid corruption allegations.