Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to receive a security briefing on Monday from caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid on the progress of negotiations to revive the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran.
The two men will discuss the advances that have been made in the past week in talks between Iran and world powers, and indirect talks between Iran and the United States.
Netanyahu also met with Lapid for a briefing during the counter terrorism Operation Breaking Dawn against Gaza’s Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.
Netanyahu: Lapid and Gantz ‘Fell Asleep on Guard Duty’
The former prime minister has accused Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz of “falling asleep on guard duty” and allowed Iran to “finalize a deal that jeopardizes our future.”
לפיד וגנץ נרדמו בשמירה ואיפשרו לאיראן להגיע להסכם שמסכן את עתידנו. pic.twitter.com/2p2Gy8BO1Z
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) August 28, 2022
Netanyahu said that Lapid supported the previous agreement that was negotiated while Netanyahu was in power, and Barack Obama was president of the United States.
“In the past year, Lapid and Gantz completely abandoned the public struggle against the Iran nuclear deal,” Netanyahu said.
“For 12 years, we fought this deal with determination and even caused the US to withdraw from it. But in their only year in power, Lapid and Gantz fell asleep on guard duty and enabled the US and Iran to reach a nuclear deal that endangers our future.
“They have done nothing to pressure the Biden Administration. They did not go to Congress, they did not go to the United Nations,” Netanyahu charged in a tweeted video message.
“Only after the United States reached an agreement with Iran did Lapid and Gantz remember to wake up – too little, too late,” he said.
Netanyahu, currently polling as the preferred candidate for the prime minister’s spot in the November elections, vowed in his message, With or without an agreement, I will do everything to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
“I will never allow Iran to attain a nuclear weapon,” he emphasized.
Lapid Hits Back
In response to Netanyahu’s accusations, Lapid claimed that all the former prime minister did while in office as “press conferences and presentations.
“The damage he caused during his tenure to the two issues most important to Israel – the struggle against Iran’s nuclear program and the relations with the United States – is severe and deep and we are still working to repair it,” he said in a statement.
In a reference to the security briefing scheduled for the two men on Monday, Lapid said he summoned the former prime minister “so that he will at least have some idea of what he’s talking about.”
Netanyahu Counters
Netanyahu then posted a photo of himself with the Iranian nuclear archives the Mossad took from Iran, exposing the Iranian plan to the world. Then asking why Naftali Bennett, Lapid’s “Minister for Iranian Affairs” is currently vacationing in Italy in an area without cellphone reception on the eve of the signing.
So, What IS the Deal?
The draft nuclear deal currently on the table includes four steps towards halting Iran’s nuclear activities and lifting Western sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The fourth and final step in the process is to take effect 165 days after the deal is signed.
Under the draft agreement and prior to signing the deal, Western prisoners will be freed by Tehran in exchange for unfreezing Iranian assets and initial sanctions relief, according to Haaretz. These actions will be followed by the four steps.
Step 1: Effective the day the deal is signed, Iran will freeze its uranium enrichment – but will be allowed to keep the enriched uranium already stockpiled.
Step 2: President Joe Biden will bring the deal to the Congress for approval, a process that is to take 30 days.
Step 3: Sixty days after Congressional approval of the deal, the US government will officially notify the UN Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its decision to rejoin the revived nuclear deal.
Step 4: After an additional 60 days, the US will formally return to the deal and will lift more sanctions. Iran and the US will “halt their violations” of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
