Israel urges US to soften Iran talks deadline

US Secretary of State John Kerry, the Obama administration’s top negotiator with Iran

Israel is urging the US to soften the June 30 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran because, they argue, it is inadvertently providing Tehran leverage in the negotiations, a report says.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, a former intelligence minister and a high-ranking Likud Party member, is in Washington for meetings with top Obama administration officials regarding the Iran nuclear talks.

“The Iranians are using delay tactics. It seems they want to come close to the deadline without an agreement,” Steinitz told POLITICO on Thursday.

If that happens, Steinitz said, “there will be no time to close all the loopholes and clarify all the details. And this will serve the Iranians.”

Steinitz is Israel’s top liaison to the United States and European countries who are engaged in intense negotiations with Tehran to work out a final deal aimed at ending the longstanding Western dispute over the Islamic Republic’s civilian nuclear work.

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz

Iran and the P5+1 group – the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany – reached a landmark framework agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program in Switzerland on April 2. The two sides will now work to draft a final accord by the end of June.

Steinitz’s visit is the first by an Israeli minister since Benjamin Netanyahu made a contentious visit to Washington, DC, in March.

On March 3, the Israeli prime minister, on the Republican invitation, addressed a joint session of the US Congress, where he ranted for nearly 40 minutes against the Iran nuclear talks, warning Washington that it was negotiating a “bad deal” with the Islamic Republic.

Analysts say Israeli officials are attempting to delay the Iran nuclear deal so that when the Republican-dominated US Congress rejects it, Barack Obama will no longer be the US president and the next president is unlikely to veto the Congressional bill rejecting any agreement.

GJH/GJH


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