TEL AVIV, Israel, 18 Jun: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he opposes any interim agreement reportedly being negotiated between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program.
\nNetanyahu spoke after reports in Israeli media said understandings are being reached between Washington and Tehran that would seek to hold back Iran\u2019s nuclear program somewhat, in exchange for some sanctions relief. The reports could not be independently confirmed and the U.S. has publicly denied any such deal.
\nNetanyahu said Israel had informed the U.S. that \u201cthe most limited understandings, what are termed \u2018mini-agreements\u2019, do not \u2013 in our view \u2013 serve the goal and we are opposed to them as well.\u201d
\nIsraeli officials believe some understandings have already been reached limiting enrichment and that some funds have already been unfrozen. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a confidential diplomatic assessment.
\nThe Israeli news site Walla last week reported that under the emerging understandings Iran would limit its uranium enrichment to 60% in exchange for sanctions relief. The site also said the sides were discussing reciprocal prisoner releases.
\nState Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week \u201cthere is no deal,\u201d adding that the reports were untrue.
\nIn its report, Walla said Netanyahu had revealed details of the agreement at a recent parliamentary committee meeting. The U.S. and Israel share intelligence and a prime focus of the countries\u2019 interactions is Iran and its nuclear program.
\nNetanyahu vehemently opposed the 2015 deal between Iran and world powers brokered by the Obama administration that sought to rein in Iran\u2019s nuclear program. He was a major supporter of President Donald Trump\u2019s 2018 decision to withdraw from the deal, which left it in shambles.
\nIran says its program is meant for civilian purposes. Israel considers a nuclear Iran as a major threat, citing its calls for Israel\u2019s destruction and its support for anti-Israel militant groups across the region.
\nIsrael says it does not rule out military action to prevent Iran from making a nuclear weapon. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TEL AVIV, Israel, 18 Jun: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he opposes any interim agreement reportedly being negotiated between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program. Netanyahu spoke after reports in Israeli media said understandings are being reached between Washington and Tehran that would seek to hold back Iran\u2019s nuclear program […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-218647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}