Jerusalem, April 3 – Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Thursday that the framework nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers was “far” from being real. Steinitz made the remark on his Facebook page,
shortly after the European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif presented the outline of the agreement in a press conference in the Swiss city of Lausanne, according to a Xinhua report.
Mogherini announced after the framework deal was reached that the basis for an agreement for a peaceful Iranian nuclear programme and a lifting of sanctions against Iran had been reached.
Steinitz said that the smiles seen on the faces of delegates from the P5+1 group of world powers (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany) and Iran during the press conference were “disconnected from the sad reality”, adding that Israel would “continue its efforts and hope to prevent a bad agreement”.
Earlier on Thursday, Steinitz said that “all options were on the table”, including a military option, to prevent Iran from devising nuclear weapons. Israeli officials decry the possibility of a nuclear Iran as an existential threat to Israel and the region, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that the agreement would enable Iran to “break out” and manufacture nuclear weapons in less than a year.
Netanyahu reiterated his stance on Twitter, saying “any deal must significantly roll back Iran’s nuclear capabilities and stop its terrorism and aggression”. On Tuesday, Netanyahu told the Israeli Knesset (parliament) that agreement in Lausanne “paves the way to Iran’s effort to arm itself with nuclear weapons”, specifying it would “leave in Iran’s possession underground installations, the Arak nuclear reactor and advanced centrifuges”.
The framework agreement announced on Thursday night followed a week of intense negotiations between the negotiating parties, aimed at reaching a framework agreement on key issues. The deadline for a final deal is set for June 30.
The framework agreement stated that the final agreement would be in effect for 10 to 15 years in which there would be strict oversight by the international community over the Iranian nuclear facilities.
-INDIA TODAY
