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Itongadol.- Israeli Minister of Strategic and Intelligence Affairs Yuval Steinitz has told Haaretz that the gaps between Iran and the six powers are still great, and it is unlikely that an agreement over the prior\’s nuclear deal can be reached before the July 20 deadline.
Steinitz spoke to Haaretz after heading a senior delegation to Washington to discuss coordination with the U.S. regarding the talks on Iran’s nuclear program. The sixth round of talks was scheduled to begin on Wednesday in Vienna, in an attempt to reach a final deal.
The representatives of Iran and the six powers – the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, will begin a particularly intensive round of talks that will last two weeks. The Iranian delegation will be headed by the Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, while the six nations’ representative will be the European Union’s Catherine Ashton, who is in charge of foreign affairs. If there is any breakthrough before July 20, the foreign ministers of the six powers will also join.
On the eve of this round, Israel and the U.S. held a senior level coordination meeting. Israel attempted to hold this meeting last week, with only a few days’ notice, in a last-ditch effort to sway American positions regarding the final agreement with Iran.
Along with Steinitz, the Israeli delegation included National Security Advisor Yossi Cohen, the head of Strategic Affairs at the Foreign Ministry Jeremy Issacharoff and senior officials from the Military Intelligence, the Mossad and Israel’s Atomic Energy Agency. The American delegation was headed by deputy secretary of state Bill Burns and by under-secretary of state Wendy Sherman. These two also head the U.S. delegation to Vienna.
Steinitz sounded pleased in a conversation he held with Haaretz before leaving the U.S. “I had requested an urgent meeting with only a few days’ notice. They responded at once, and their willingness to meet and listen is admirable. The talks were held in a good atmosphere, despite the disputed topics that still exist with regards to the talks with Iran.” Steinitz added that the talks covered all the components of the talks with the Iranians, including uranium enrichment, the heavy water reactor, the military implications of the nuclear program, and more. Steinitz said that the impression was that an agreement is not in the offing. “The gaps are so wide that I can’t see them closing before July 20”, he said. “The talks will either collapse or they will agree to an extension of a few months.”
Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a message to Iran Tuesday, in an article in the Washington Post. In it, he said that time for reaching an agreement was running out. He said that Iran must now decide, and that there were gaps between what Iran said it was willing to do and what needs to be done in order to reach a deal. He said that their publicly expressed optimism did not match the positions they expressed around the negotiating table.
Kerry said that the six nations had shown great flexibility throughout the process and that the remaining gaps are not due to excessive demands. He said that they would not agree to an extension merely for the purpose of dragging out the talks, and that Iran must demonstrate a serious attitude in the remaining time.
The Israeli delegation said in Washington that the evolving agreement must place Iran years away from a breakthrough towards nuclear weapons, not only a year or months away. “If Iran remains on the brink, it will become nuclear. The temptation will be too great and they will exploit some global crisis to cross the threshold.”
Steinitz reported that he told his interlocutors that despite the rockets from Gaza and the abduction, the Iranian issue remains at the top of Israel’s agenda, since it involves an existential threat. “We told the Americans that any agreement must withstand the test of time and history. The principle must be ‘yes’ to a civilian program and ‘no’ to centrifuges and uranium enrichment. The emphasis must be on dismantling of infrastructure and not on supervision.”
“We feel we are being taken seriously, even if they don’t agree with us on everything. Our positions are being considered. I told the Americans that all the multiple problems we are facing now – Syria, Jordan, Iraq which is falling apart and Ukraine – will all be resolved within a few years. However, a nuclear Iran or Iran on the threshold will be a problem for decades. It won’t go away. The world’s future rests on their shoulders. I felt that they realized the severity of the matter.”