Israel is prepared to act alone against Iran in case it becomes necessary, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned on Monday as the eighth round of talks in Vienna to revive the abandoned 2015 nuclear accord are set to begin but concern remains that they are not going anywhere.
“Of course, we prefer to act in international cooperation, but if necessary – we will act alone. We defend ourselves by ourselves,” Lapid told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“We have presented to our allies with quite a bit of firm intelligence [on Iran's nuclear program]. [It was not] opinions and positions, [but] intelligence that proves Iran is deceiving the world in a completely systematic way,” he added.
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Lapid said all Iran cared about was for the US to lift the sanctions and Tehran can pour billions of dollars into its nuclear program and into funding its proxy of Shia militias in the region.
Currently, tensions are high over whether or not the Vienna talks to revive the abandoned 2015 Iran nuclear deal will succeed.
The US has long been saying that if diplomacy failed with Iran, it was willing to turn to “plan B”, without specifying details.
Meanwhile, Washington ally Israel has grown impatient and has repeatedly announced it is preparing for a military strike on Iranian nuclear targets.
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