Israeli officials are concerned that the United States is preparing to restart the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran without strengthening it, according to a new report.
Israeli officials were dismayed by an interview that United States special envoy to Iran, Rob Malley, conducted with PBS NewsHour on Friday, in which he discussed returning to the 2015 Joint Global Action Plan without insisting on prolonging the period before restrictions on Iranian nuclear policy are loosened and ended, according to the Jerusalem Post.
A senior Israeli official told the newspaper, “If this is American policy, we are concerned.”
Former President Trump in May 2018 announced the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Iran deal.
The interview “raised eyebrows” among senior Israeli officials, the source told the Jerusalem Post, because “in the past, the Biden administration talked about a ‘longer and stronger’ deal – as if they were looking for something else – and that is not [in the Malley interview]. It is a matter of returning to the 2015 business.
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“Nowhere in the interview did Malley say the objective is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” the source told the newspaper. “Nowhere does he accuse Iranians of bad behavior … Nowhere in the interview does he talk about the importance of consultations with American allies in the region.
The source noted that restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activities will be phased out over the next decade. He said Malley was very solicitous with Iran, drawing an equivalence between the United States and the Islamic republic.
“He is acting as if he were from the UN, saying that the two sides do not trust each other,” said the official.
“Is it fair to say that the burden is the same for both sides, or do you consider Iran as having the greatest burden of proof here?” host Judy Woodruff asked Malley on Friday.
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“I don’t see it in any way. I think it is a question of whether both sides can take the necessary steps to return to compliance,” said Malley. He added: “When there is an agreement that both sides are comfortable with, it is when there is an agreement.”
The State Department could not be reached for comment.