In Touch - 1st Quarter 2022

News Report
Lapid seeks to establish
coalition of nations to oppose
Iran’s nuclear ambitions
Against the backdrop of the revived nuclear talks in Vienna,
Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid engaged in a
round of high-profile meetings with British officials on
Monday 29 th November 2021, followed by a meeting in
Paris on Tuesday 30 th with French President Emmanuel
Macron. Israel is concerned that in their eagerness to revive
the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed
between Iran and world powers in 2015, negotiators will
yield to Iranian demands.
David Menashri, founding director of the Alliance Centre
for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University, says: “The issue
is to establish a coalition of countries who understand the
threat to the free world, to the Middle East, to Israel and to
the Iranian people, of Iran turning nuclear.”
“When the foreign minister goes and visits countries and
publicises it, that’s good. I think it’s very important to
explain the Israeli point of view, to explain the Iranian
threat to the world – above all, the nuclear threat,” he
continued. “But, you know, the world doesn’t want to
listen. You have to speak with them again and again, and
to open their minds.”
During his visit, Lapid signed a 10-year Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) on strategic co-operation with his
UK counterpart, Elizabeth Truss. The two also wrote an
op-ed in The Telegraph, stating:
“We will work night and day to prevent the Iranian
regime from ever becoming a nuclear power.”
Lapid stressed the Iran threat in two speeches. He told
Britain’s Foreign Office:
“A nuclear Iran will thrust the entire Middle East into
a nuclear arms race. We will find ourselves in a new
Cold War, but this time the bomb will be in the hands of
religious fanatics.”
Later, at lunch with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson,
he said:
“Our friendship will be reflected in the coming months in
our shared determination to prevent Iran from acquiring
a nuclear weapon, at all costs.”
Similarly, following what was reported as a ‘long and
warm meeting with the president of France’, Lapid said
that “after many years, Israel’s position is being heard and
Israel’s position is firm. Sanctions on Iran must not be lifted.
Sanctions need to be tightened; there needs to be a credible
military threat on Iran because only this will prevent it from
continuing its race towards a nuclear weapon.”
Nobody talks strategically about the state itself
Mordechai Kedar, senior research associate at the Begin-
Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies, is more critical of Israel’s
diplomatic efforts, describing the nuclear issue as a “byproduct”
of the real issue.
Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid with his UK counterpart, Elizabeth Truss
He says, “Everybody is talking about tactics – how to stop
the nuclear program. Nobody talks strategically about the
state itself. From here, the problem starts. What I’m talking
about is the structure of Iran. I’m not talking about the
nuclear issue.”
He argued that Iran isn’t made up of a single “Iranian
people” but a collection of ethnicities that are oppressed
by the country’s largest ethnic group, the Persians. Those
separate groups, among them the Azeris, Kurds, Baluchs
and Arabs, don’t share a common Iranian identity and
resent Persian control.
So far, it appears that Iran has taken a maximalist approach
to negotiations in Vienna, suggesting that everything that
had been discussed in previous rounds would be subject to
renegotiation.
Iran has also accused Israel of “hindering the Vienna talks.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh
posted on Twitter the claim that the “Israeli regime whose
existence relies on tension is at it again, trumpeting lies to
poison Vienna talks.”
He didn’t specify which Israeli comments he had in mind
but added:
“All parties in the room now face a test of their
independence and political will to carry out the job
– irrespective of the fake news designed to destroy
prospects for success.”
Late in November Axios reported that Israel had shared
intelligence with the US and European allies suggesting that
Iran was taking technical steps to prepare to enrich uranium
to 90% purity, the amount needed for a nuclear weapon.
David Menashri says Israel needs support because as a
small country it can’t do it alone. “Israel will not be able to
do anything against the nuclear program without the prior
knowledge of and, probably, also the blessing of the United
States.”
Adapted with permission from an article by David Isaac (Dec 2, 2021 / JNS)
1 st Quarter 2022 • IN TOUCH 11