Moshe Ya'alon
Moshe Ya'alonMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon criticized the conduct of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid vis-à-vis the United States over the nuclear talks with Iran.

"I think we should not confront the Americans. There is room to say things, and we should say them behind closed doors," Ya'alon said in an interview on Kan 11 News.

Ya'alon, who opposed the nuclear deal when he was a member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, noted that from the moment former US President Donald Trump left the 2015 nuclear deal, a different preparation was needed on the part of Israel.

"The security-related decisions were correct, but preparations had to be made for the possibility that the Iranians would be unfazed and that military action would be needed," the former minister said, adding that if Netanyahu was the one who pushed Trump to leave the agreement, "the responsibility for the mistake lays on his shoulders."

The former minister added, "I am not convinced that there will be an agreement now - a nuclear Iran is neither in the interest of the United States nor in the interest of Russia. This means that more countries in the Middle East will aspire to have nuclear weapons."

"I want to coordinate with the United States a move that isolates this regime, imposes sanctions on it and threatens it with a credible military option. Israel must also prepare for the possibility of 'if I am not for myself, who will be for me?'" Ya'alon said.