Published: FEBRUARY 23, 2022 00:41
An explosion was heard in the Quneitra region of southwestern Syria on Tuesday night, according to initial reports on social media.
This is a developing story.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-698310
Amid signs that deal to restore 2015 pact could soon be reached, State Department touts diplomacy and coordination with regional allies as ‘the best way to achieve our goal’
US President Joe Biden (right) meets with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on August 27, 2021. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP)
The Biden administration on Monday rejected Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s criticisms of a revived 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
A US State Department spokesperson told the Walla news site that when then-US president Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Iran deal in 2018, senior Israeli defense officials thought the move was a mistake.
“We cannot make the same mistake another time and put off another opportunity for diplomatic progress,” the spokesperson said.
“We believe that diplomacy, alongside coordination with our allies in the region, is the best way to achieve our goal,” the spokesperson added. “We will not respond in the media about details from the talks.”
The spokesperson also said that US officials are in contact with their Israeli counterparts on a “daily basis,” and that Washington “will continue to consult with the Israeli government regarding the way forward.”
In a speech Sunday to the Conference of Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations, Bennett said that the emerging Iran deal will “likely create a more violent, more volatile Middle East,” said Iran would use freed-up assets to target Israel, and vowed that Israel “won’t accept Iran as a nuclear threshold state.”
The prime minister’s remarks came as Western officials indicate that an agreement to restore the deal is possible within days.
According to a Channel 12 news report Monday, a renewed deal will effectively remove the possibility of an Israeli airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
However, the network reported that Bennett and Mossad Director David Barnea are working on a new strategy to weaken Iran through economic means, as well as continuing to counter Tehran’s efforts to further entrench itself and its proxies on Israel’s borders.
The report also said Israeli officials were readying for the deal’s expiration in the coming years, and were preparing to speak with world powers on ensuring that a follow-up accord will be longer and stricter.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-rejects-bennetts-criticism-of-iran-nuke-talks-cannot-make-the-same-mistake/
Since the signing of the Abrahamic Agreements, Israel has been interested in reaching normalization with one of the most influential Arab states, Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Foreign Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, who attended the Security Conference in Munich, on Sunday clarified that his country conditions a rapprochement on an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, or at least that the parties discuss a workable plan that can be implemented.
In an interview he gave Maariv (בכיר סעודי חושף בראיון למעריב: התנאי של המדינה החשובה במפרץ לנורמליזציה), Bin Farhan said: “The integration of Israel in the region will be a huge benefit not only for Israel itself but for the entire region, but without addressing the core problems of the Palestinian people and granting respect and sovereignty to the Palestinian nation through the establishment of a Palestinian state, the instability and risks to Israel’s security and the security of the entire region will continue. In such a situation we would be strengthening the most extreme voices in the region.”
This may be a good time to discuss the Saudis recognizing the Huthi reign in Yemen, to grant them respect and sovereignty…
“The priority now is to find an arrangement so that the Israelis and Palestinians sit together and have a peace process that can be worked out,” the Foreign Minister said, almost implying that the optics, in this case, are more important than the content. “This will make it easier for all the countries that don’t yet have relations with Israel.” However, “For us, this will happen when a just solution is found to the Palestinian issue,” he stressed.
Regarding the Iran deal, according to Ma’ariv, the Saudis are in complete agreement with Israel and also insist that separate negotiations must be launched regarding everything else Iran is wreaking on the region and the world.
Bin Farhan told The Arab Weekly on Sunday that the Kingdom wants to schedule a fifth round of direct talks with Iran despite a “lack of substantive progress” so far, and urged Tehran to change its behavior in the region. As far as Saudi Arabia is concerned, restoring the 2015 deal should be “a starting point, not an endpoint.”
Saudi Arabia and Iran severed diplomatic ties in 2016, in 2021 engaged in talks with the Islamic Republic, hosted by Iraq. This month, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said he was ready for more talks if the Saudis were willing to hold them in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and respect.
Everybody wants respect in the Middle East, it turns out.
