Israeli Officials: Return to Nuclear Deal Will Increase Odds of War With Iran

• Israeli Officials: Return to Nuclear Deal Will Increase Odds of War With Iran
  by Ariel Kahana , Erez Linn and Eldad Beck, https://www.israelhayom.com/
  Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran has not yet answered questions on uranium particles found at two sites inspected last year. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell: Reviving the nuclear deal is “the most urgent and important” diplomatic priority in US-European relations.
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  The Biden administration’s conciliatory approach toward Iran increases the odds of direct war between Israel and the Islamic republic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was told on Monday during a situational assessment meeting that focused on the dangers posed by Iran’s nuclear program.
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  Representing the minority viewpoint, meanwhile, others in attendance said returning to the nuclear deal signed in 2015 was preferable to the situation created by former US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018. They told the prime minister that only a deal can return Iran to a track that stunts its breakout time to a nuclear bomb.
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  The more common opinion, however, was that the 2015 deal was so flawed and full of holes that everything must be done to prevent the US from renewing it. The country’s entire political and security echelon participated in the meeting.
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• Israel Has 80-90 Nukes, SIPRI Report Says, as Tel Aviv Continues to Accuse Iran of Nuclear Obsession
  by https://www.rt.com/
  Israel, which routinely accuses Iran of trying to obtain nuclear weapons and pledges to use force to stop Tehran, maintains its own undeclared nuclear arsenal estimated at 80 to 90, according to the latest report by SIPRI.
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  There are nine nations in the world that currently have nuclear weapons, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) says in its newly released yearbook on the state of armaments and international security. The world nuclear stockpile went from 14,465 at the beginning of last year to about 13,865 this year, the report estimates, as the US and Russia were delivering on their promises under the New START Treaty signed in 2010.
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  Israel, which maintains a policy of neither confirming nor denying the possession of nuclear weapons, has between 80 and 90 warheads in its stockpile, the same as the year before, the institute said.
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  It comes as tensions between Iran on one side, and the US and regional ally Israel on the other, continue to mount. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s unsinkable prime minister, has for years waged a campaign accusing the Iranians of having unwavering nuclear ambitions, regardless of the evidence, or lack thereof.
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“Iran doesn’t frighten me and I don’t think it should frighten the American people. They don’t have a bomb. They haven’t made a decision to build one. They don’t have the means to deliver one. And the Israelis have 300 atomic bombs! I mean who presents the existential threat to whom?” – Pat Buchanan (7:58 onwards)

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