Iran nuclear deal: Israel’s ex-PM criticizes US, Biden administration over deal

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the United States and Biden administration for being close to a “very, very bad” nuclear deal with Iran, dubbing a potential agreement as a “highway paved with gold to a nuclear arsenal.

“They’re going to get hundreds of billions of dollars in short order, and that’s going to help them finance their various proxies,” Netanyahu said in an interview on Wednesday.

The former Israeli premier said there was “no sense” in the deal on the table. “It’s against peace and security; it’s against our future. It’s a mess,” he said.

Going further to criticize the Biden administration and the US, Netanyahu said: “Can a country as important as the United States make such a big mistake? The answer is yes. Unfortunately, it’s happened in the past.”

He was referring to the 2015 nuclear deal, which was brokered and signed under the Obama administration.

Netanyahu suggested that there was “a good chance” he would become Israel’s next prime minister again. “I will return to the policy of actively blocking Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” he said.

Former and current Israeli officials have come out in recent days to criticize the potential nuclear deal.

Last week, the State Department said countries, including Israel and in the GCC, that were “not wild about the JCPOA in 2015 and 2016 have over the years changed their tune on the JCPOA.”

But former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett quickly called on the Biden administration not to sign a deal with Iran, “even now at this last minute.

Bennett took to Twitter on Tuesday to voice Israel’s opposition to the deal, claiming the agreement would send “approximately a quarter of a trillion dollars to the Iranian terror administration’s pocket and to its regional proxies.”

And Israel’s caretaker prime minister said the US should not strike “a bad deal” with Iran, calling on Washington to walk away from the table.

After more than a year of indirect talks and stalling mechanisms by Iran, the EU proposed a final text to Iran and the US at the start of this month, asking for a response within a few weeks.

Despite the EU saying there was no more room for negotiations, Tehran made several remarks and sent its response to the EU, which in turn passed along the comments to the US.

On Wednesday, the US said it had responded to Iran’s comments via the EU. The US provided no further details on the response.