Israel tells US it has serious reservations about Iran nuclear deal
Israel has serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal being put together in Vienna, new foreign minister Yair Lapid told his American counterpart, as he pledged to fix "the mistakes made" in US-Israeli relations in recent years.
In their first face-to-face meeting since Israel's new government was sworn in two weeks ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Lapid had a very positive and warm discussion, according to US officials. The main topics were the nuclear deal and Israel's normalization accords with Gulf Arab states, as well as humanitarian aid to Gaza and the status of East Jerusalem, a topic that helped fuel the latest wave of violence between the Israelis and Palestinians in May.
"Israel has some serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal that is being put together in Vienna. We believe the way to discuss those disagreements is through direct and professional conversations, not in press conferences," Lapid said in brief remarks ahead of the meeting in Rome.
Iran and the United States have been holding indirect talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers that imposed restrictions on Tehran's nuclear activities in exchange for lifting international sanctions.The United States, under former President Donald Trump, abandoned the deal and reemployed harsh US sanctions, prompting Iran to respond by violating many of its restrictions.
