Defense Minister Benny Gantz tweeted Saturday night that in his meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris in Munich, “I told her that any future agreement must include consistent enforcement by the IAEA in addition to handling the open files in the nuclear program.”
Gantz, who attends the Munich Security Conference that started on Friday, has also met with the defense ministers of France, Germany, the UK, and the German foreign minister. He is scheduled to speak at the conference on Sunday.
“This evening I met with Vice President Kamala Harris for a discussion on the unparalleled, strategic bond between Israel and the US. Our ties and cooperation contribute to the security of both our nations and to the Middle East region as a whole,” Gantz tweeted. “I expressed my gratitude to US President Biden and the VP for their commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran.”
“I also thanked her for the United States’ important role in maintaining stability in the Middle East, in the face of regional aggression perpetrated by Iran and its proxies,” Gantz added. “We also discussed the importance of expanding the Abraham Accords, the situation in Ukraine, and the importance of pursuing confidence-building measures with the Palestinians. In addition, I updated the VP on a series of steps I plan to take in order to deepen cooperation with our neighbors in the region.”
Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone conversation on Saturday that any agreement between Tehran and the five countries in the Vienna talks must include the removal of all sanctions, the provision of reliable guarantees that the US would not walk away from the deal again, and “cessation of political issues and claims.”
That’s all that talk about Iran being the major spreader of violence and terrorism in the world.
Or as the Butcher of Tehran put it, according to Tasnim: certain “political pressures or claims have been made with the aim of maintaining the leverage of pressure on the Iranian nation which undermines the prospect of reaching an agreement.”
He also said: “In the course of the negotiations, the Islamic Republic of Iran has offered constructive proposals and has examined the proposals made by the other side of the talks based on their conformity with the interests of the Iranian people.”
A French source said Macron stressed to his counterpart that it was essential to reach an agreement as long as possible, and noted that he was convinced that the talks had made it possible to reach a solution that respected the vital interests of all parties and could prevent a serious nuclear crisis.
The French president also stressed that Iran must seize the opportunity and make political decisions that will make it possible to maintain the Vienna Agreement.
Israel hopes that the lifting of sanctions on Iran will be gradual, but expects the US to encourage commercial entities to do business with Iran.
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine will probably divert the world’s attention from the Iranian nuclear issue. This could mean that the talks would be suspended, or that they would reach a faster pace, while the world isn’t looking so closely.
