US told Israel that Iran nuclear deal unlikely in near future, says report

Top US officials have told Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid that a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers won’t be signed in the foreseeable future, The Times of Israel reported. 

Increasingly convinced the deal is stalled, Lapid for now is re-prioritizing a national security strategy to focus on escalating violence in the West Bank, where there’s an urgent need to shore up the Palestinian Authority as it loses clout, the newspaper said. 

Israel opposes efforts to revive the 2015 pact that eased sanctions on Iran’s economy in return for caps on its nuclear program. In a visit to an airbase on Tuesday, Lapid said it was “too early to tell if we have succeeded in stopping the nuclear deal.”

Iran’s latest response to a European Union-mediated proposal to restore the atomic accord was last week called “not constructive” by the US.

Neither the US, the EU nor Iran have detailed the latest stumbling blocks to re-entering the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which former President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018. But Iran has insisted publicly that international atomic inspectors wrap up a probe of undeclared nuclear sites before signing a deal. The US says that investigation must proceed unimpeded.