{"id":201413,"date":"2021-12-20T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=201413"},"modified":"2024-09-23T14:38:52","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T13:38:52","slug":"israel-is-hell-bent-on-sabotaging-us-nuclear-negotiations-with-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/12\/israel-is-hell-bent-on-sabotaging-us-nuclear-negotiations-with-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Is Hell-Bent on Sabotaging US Nuclear Negotiations with Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d think that Israel might feel obligated not to drag the United States into another disastrous military conflict in the Middle East, this time with Iran. But no: Israel is doing everything it can to sabotage US-Iran nuclear negotiations and stoke a war.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Joint Commission negotiations in Vienna, Austria. (Askin Kiyagan \/ Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

10 Dec 2021 – <\/em>After a five-month hiatus, indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran resumed last week in Vienna in an attempt to revise the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). The outlook isn\u2019t good.<\/p>\n

Less than a week into negotiations, Britain, France, and Germany accused<\/a> Iran of\u00a0 \u201cwalking back almost all of the difficult compromises\u201d achieved during the first round of negotiations before Iran\u2019s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, was sworn into office. While such actions by Iran certainly aren\u2019t helping the negotiations succeed, there is another country \u2014 one that is not even a party to the agreement that was ripped up in 2018 by then president Donald Trump \u2014 whose hard-line position is creating obstacles to successful negotiations: Israel.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, amid reports that the talks might collapse, Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett called on the countries meeting in Vienna to \u201ctake a strong line<\/a>\u201d against Iran. According to Channel 12 news in Israel, Israeli officials are urging the United States<\/a> to take military action against Iran, either by striking Iran directly or by hitting an Iranian base in Yemen. Regardless of the negotiations\u2019 outcome, Israel says that it reserves the right to take military<\/a> action against Iran.<\/p>\n

Israeli threats aren\u2019t just bluster. Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated, presumably by Israel<\/a>. In July 2020, a fire, attributed<\/a> to an Israeli bomb, caused significant damage to Iran\u2019s Natanz nuclear site. In November 2020, shortly after Joe Biden won the presidential election, Israeli operatives used remote control machine guns to assassinate<\/a> Iran\u2019s top nuclear scientist. Had Iran retaliated proportionately, the United States might have backed up Israel, with the conflict spiraling into a full-blown US\u2013Middle East war.<\/p>\n

In April 2021, as diplomatic efforts were underway between the Biden administration and Iran, sabotage attributed to Israel caused a blackout<\/a> at Natanz. Iran described the action as \u201cnuclear terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

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