There has been a meeting in Rome about the nuclear deal between Iran and the United States. In the meantime, Israel has not yet dropped its intention to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Yet, American President Donald Trump has unequivocally informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. is not yet prepared to endorse such an action. In the meantime, the United Nations nuclear watchdog has sent out a warning that has concerned Israel. For this reason, even with the U.S. denial, Israel has not disarmed the threat of an attack on Iran’s nuclear program in the next few months.
Israeli leaders have promised to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Netanyahu has insisted that any deal with Iran should lead to the total elimination of its nuclear program.
Sources have indicated that over the past few months, Israel has offered a number of options to the Trump administration for striking Iran’s facilities, some of which have deadlines at the end of spring and summer.
Reports indicate that such plans have mentioned airstrikes and commando raids. This would put off Iran’s weaponsizing of its nuclear program for a few months, a year, or more.
The New York Times on Wednesday, April 16 said that Trump informed Netanyahu during a White House meeting this month that Washington is keen to give Tehran precedence in diplomatic negotiations and is not ready to endorse an assault on the nation’s nuclear sites in the near future.
The director of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that Iran is ‘not far from’ a nuclear bomb. Western nations, including the US, have been suspicious for years that Iran is trying to get nuclear weapons. Iran has long denied such accusations, claiming that its programme is for peaceful civilian use.
Grossi’s warning is made now as the U.S. and Iran are in the process of negotiating nuclear talks. In an interview reported on Wednesday by the French newspaper Le Monde, Grossi stated,
“It’s like a puzzle. They have pieces, and one day they may put them together. There is still a path to reach that point. But they are not far from it, this has to be acknowledged.”
The United Nations has been mandated with monitoring Iran’s nuclear program and adherence to the 2015 nuclear deal, which fell apart three years later when the United States pulled out during President Donald Trump’s initial term.
