The Cradle, September 12, 2022 — Israeli officials have been reassured by Washington that they can continue to target Iran even if the nuclear deal is restored.
David Barnea, the head of Israel’s spy agency the Mossad, said on 12 September that Iran would not be granted “immunity” even if the US returns to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal.
“Even if a nuclear deal is signed it will not give Iran immunity from the Mossad operations,” Barnea said. “We won’t take part in this charade and we don’t close our eyes to the proven truth.”
In response, a spokesperson for the Iranian foreign ministry said: “We do not expect a terrorist regime [to do] anything other than terrorist actions.”
Barnea’s most recent threat came on the same day when Israel’s interim Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, arrived in Germany in an attempt to persuade its western ally to ditch the Iran nuclear deal.
Last week, the Mossad chief visited Washington to meet with several high security officials, including CIA Director William Burns, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Israel has been working around the clock to get the US to change its plans to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
Furthermore, the country has also carried out assassinations and acts of sabotage inside the Islamic Republic in an attempt to end the talks. For the past three decades, Israeli officials and their western sponsors have claimed Iran is anywhere from “years” to “days” away from developing a nuclear weapon.
Earlier this month, US President Joe Biden assured Israeli officials that a revived nuclear deal with Iran will have no clauses preventing Tel Aviv from attacking Iranian nuclear sites or targets inside Syria.
For their part, Iranian officials have repeatedly called on the US not to allow Israel to interfere in the deal.
Last May, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that Israel’s sabotage efforts are taking “the national interests of the US hostage.”
Over the weekend, Washington’s allies in the talks to revive the nuclear deal issued a controversial statement in which they accused Iran of choosing “not to seize this critical diplomatic opportunity,” adding that “instead, Iran continues to escalate its nuclear program way beyond any plausible civilian justification.”