Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz to Paris as cracks appear between France and Washington over Iran deal
By HERB KEINON/J.Post/03/22/2015
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz headed to Paris Sunday afternoon, as differences emerged over the weekend between France and the US over the negotiating strategy with Iran.
“This is an effort to prevent a (nuclear) deal that is bad and full of loopholes, or at least … to succeed in closing or amending some of these loopholes,” Steinitz told Israel radio. He is being accompanied by National Security Council head Yossi Cohen, and several other intelligence officials
Steinitz said he may go to other European capitals as well.
At one point during the latest negotiations, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius phoned his team to ensure that it made no more concessions, officials at the talks said last week. And on Saturday Fabius said France wants an agreement that would guarantee that Iran could not produce a nuclear weapon.
Israel’s ambassador to the US Ron Dermer said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday that a bad Iran deal is one with a “short breakout time.”
“Right now they’re talking about a year breakout time,” he said. “ That leaves Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure in place. That breakout time has to be much longer.”
And a “very bad” deal, he said, “would automatically remove restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program after only about a decade.” In that case, Dermer said, Iran would be able to become a nuclear weapons state when the deal expired. This, he said, “would lead to mass nuclear proliferation in the region and would be very dangerous for the Middle East and the world.”
