MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th February, 2021) Israel continues to stand in opposition to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in line with its determination to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with US President Joe Biden for the first time since the latter's inauguration in late January. Among other things, they discussed regional security issues, including those related to Iran. Israel itself is not a party to the nuclear deal.
"PMO: Israel remains committed to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons and its position on the nuclear agreement has not changed. Israel believes that going back to the old agreement will pave Iran's path to a nuclear arsenal. Israel is in close contact w/ the US on this matter," Netanyahu's spokesperson Ofir Gendelman said on Twitter.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 by Iran, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union, stipulating the removal of international sanctions from Tehran in exchange for it scaling down its nuclear program. In 2018, the United States unilaterally withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Tehran responded by gradually abandoning its own commitments.
In mid-January, Israeli media reported that the Biden administration was negotiating Washington's return to the deal, possibly to introduce certain changes to it. Chief of the General Staff of Israeli Defense Forces Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi said back then that "anything that looks like the current agreement or an improved version of it" would be a bad deal from the operational and strategic points of view and, therefore, unacceptable to Israel.
Israel-Iran ties suffered a new round of escalation in late November following the assassination of prominent Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who used to be one of the key figures behind Iran's nuclear program. Tehran blamed the assassination on Israel.
