Despite US claims that reports of new Iran deal are not accurate, Israel says Pres. Biden is determined to reach understandings with Tehran, and that these will be reached "within weeks," Ynet reported.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday rejected reports that Washington and Tehran were close to deals on limiting Iran's nuclear program and releasing US citizens detained in the country - but in Israel, estimates are that an agreement of understanding will be reached within weeks.
According to Israeli officials, the decision to reach an agreement was made by US President Joe Biden for political reasons ahead of the 2024 presidential elections. Those same officials say that the US wants to first of all finish with the "Iran issue" and immediately afterwards focus efforts on a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Ynet reported that Israel believes the agreement between the US and Iran will be "slim," without signatures or officials meeting. From the Iranian side, the understandings discuss halting the enrichment of uranium to 60%, increasing cooperation between Tehran and IAEA supervisors, and releasing American prisoners. In exchange, the US will release billions of dollars of frozen Iranian funds.
Israeli officials say that the Americans have crossed the point of no return on their journey towards reaching understandings. "The lot has fallen," they said. Iran, for its part, wants to reach this agreement since it will bring legitimization in the international arena and allow many countries to do business with it.
Israel is concerned that an agreement of understandings is not expected to include the matter of Iran's unmanned aerial vehicles, the ballistic missiles which Tehran is developing, and the "campaign of terror" which the Iranian Republic is funding in the Middle East. Israel also understands that its ability to influence the US not to reach an agreement with Iran is nonexistent, since what is behind the understandings is Biden's political desire to show his achievements prior to elections, and the relationship between the US and Israel at the moment does not allow substantial pressure on the part of Israel. On the other hand, Israeli officials also say that it is not certain that if the relationship were better, the results would be any different. One Israeli official said that an agreement with Iran was a goal set by the BIden administration from the outset.
This agreement has a lot of holes," that same official said. "It does not discuss all of Iran's activities in the region, including funding terror organizations, unmanned aerial vehicles, ballistic missiles, the connection with Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad, and so on. Iran's commitment to the agreements is not a guarantee that can ensure these things, and therefore we say clearly to the Americans and in general: This agreement does not obligate us."