The negotiations over the nuclear deal with Iran are now entering their final stretch. The Iranians have asked for a few more days for "consultations" and may engage in more footdragging before they give their final answer to the latest proposals.
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Over the past 24 hours, the Qataris have once again entered the fray in order to help tie loose ends and help both sides take the final few steps to the finish line. Assistant Foreign Minister for Regional Affairs Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al Khulaifi has left on an urgent mission to Tehran to meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani, who is the head of the Iranian delegation to the Vienna talks. The Qatari official also wasted no time in calling the European Union coordinator for the talks so that he could brief the Americans.
What is truly fascinating in this story is that there is already a draft that is ready for all sides to declare a new deal. It includes gradual sanction relief in return for a pause in uranium enrichment and mothballing the advanced centrifuges. After Iran made the "concession" of dropping the demand of removing the Revolutionary Guards from the State Department's list of terrorist organizations, there is still one issue that has not been resolved: the ongoing International Atomic Energy Agency probes on suspicious nuclear activity in Iran. There appears to be deadlock there.
While this issue could seem trivial, Iran has refused to provide answers that would help close those cases, including on the reasons why uranium traces were found in three sites. Tehran has so far remained hunkered down in its refusal to cooperate and has even gone beyond that by insisting the investigations are shut before any deal takes effect.
It is easy to see why Iran has taken this intransigent approach. Any explanation on those suspicious traces would be tantamount to an admission that it had been lying to the world and deceived it. This would make it a perennial suspect on such issues earning the world's designation as a country that could very well deceive its way to a bomb.
Mossad Director David Barnea is right that Iran has been lying to everyone, and everyone knows that. But he was wrong to publicly criticize the Biden administration for re-entering a deal that is based on deception. This was a mistake on Barnea's part not because it is not his role to criticize the US administration, but because such criticism won't be of any help.
Israel, despite its many efforts, was unable to stop the negotiations and the deal in 2015. Those who claim that trying harder this time would derail the deal are both wrong and misleading. The main focus on Israel's activity vis-a-vis the US should be about coordinating with the administration on how to bolster the inspections in Iran so that violations could be detected in real-time, as well as coordinating a possible military response if such breaches are found. The deal may grant Iran a "license" to a bomb by 2031, but the ongoing threat posed by Iran's conventional capabilities will increase right after a deal is completed due to the billions of dollars that would fill Iran's coffers and allow it to upgrade its missile production capabilities and terrorist endeavors.
It is not necessary to look all the way to Tehran to see the negative impact of the deal. The very fact that the deal is nearing has already provided tailwind to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who has been ratcheting up the threats on Israel almost daily over the Karish gas field dispute, which is solvable.
Hezbollah does not pose an existential threat on Israel but we should not discount the potential damage that tens of thousands of missiles can inflict on Israel should hostilities erupt on the northern border. On this matter, coordination with the US is very important as well on the Israeli response if Hezbollah makes another mistake by launching an attack.
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