New Israeli leader: world powers have to “wake up” over nuclear deal with Iran

Iran and the world powers are due to resume indirect talks in Vienna on Sunday to revive the torn Tehran nuclear deal of 2015, which eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for restricting its nuclear program.

For weeks, Iranian and American diplomats have been negotiating a return to the agreement in the Austrian capital through European mediators.

The talks on Sunday are the first since the election of Raisi, which will give hardliners firm control over the Iranian government.

The groundbreaking nuclear deal between the world powers and Iran, which Israel rejected, failed after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the deal in 2018. That decision has led Iran to abandon all enrichment restrictions over time and Tehran is currently enriching uranium at its highest level ever, albeit still below weaponry.

Bennett said Raisi’s election as Iranian president was “the last chance for world powers to wake up before going back to the nuclear deal and understand who they are doing business with.

“These guys are murderers, mass murderers: a regime of brutal executioners must never have weapons of mass destruction that enable them to kill millions, not thousands,” he said.

Israel has long declared that it rejects archenemy Iran’s nuclear program and would prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Earlier this month, Israel’s outgoing Mossad intelligence chief signaled that Israel was behind a series of attacks on the country’s nuclear program.

Bennett leads a broad coalition of parties ranging from Jewish ultra-nationalists to liberal factions to a small Islamist party. His government convened its first cabinet meeting since it was sworn in last week, overthrew longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sent him into the opposition for the first time in twelve years.