Statement by PM Yair Lapid to the Foreign Media
Israel - Prime Minister's Office
28.08.2022
Statement by PM Yair Lapid to the Foreign Media
• " This deal is not a good deal. It was not a good deal when it was signed back in 2015. Today, the dangers it entails are even greater. It is closer to its sunset date and Iran is more advanced technologically."
• " Our diplomatic directive, from day one, was to fight this agreement with full force, but without damaging our strategic ties with the United States and without losing their attentiveness to our arguments."
• " The IDF and the Mossad have received instructions from us to prepare for any scenario. We will be ready to act to safeguard Israel's security. The Americans understand that, the world understands that, and the people of Israel should as well."
Prime Minister Yair Lapid issued the following statement today to the foreign media:
"For over a year, the State of Israel has put up a broad diplomatic fight to prevent the re-signing of the nuclear deal with Iran. The head of the National Security Council returned this weekend from Washington, and our defense minister is there right now. We are making a concerted effort to ensure the Americans and Europeans understand the dangers involved in this agreement.
This deal is not a good deal. It was not a good deal when it was signed back in 2015. Today, the dangers it entails are even greater. It is closer to its sunset date and Iran is more advanced technologically.
The State of Israel is not opposed to an agreement. It is both possible and necessary to make Iran sign a much better agreement, one that the Americans themselves dubbed Longer & Stronger.
Longer - because it would be an agreement without an expiration date, as French President Emmanuel Macron suggested.
Stronger - because supervision would be tighter, and it would address Iran's ballistic missile program and its involvement in terrorism throughout the Middle East.
We can reach such an agreement if a credible military threat is put on the table, if the Iranians realize that their defiance and deceit will exact a heavy price.
That is what led the Iranians to sign the deal last time. President Obama revealed the capabilities of the bunker busters—munitions that can penetrate bunkers—and the Iranians got the message and signed the deal.
Our diplomatic directive, from day one, was to fight this agreement with full force, but without damaging our strategic ties with the United States and without losing their attentiveness to our arguments.
We cannot return to where we were in 2015. In the past few months, we have delivered quite a few successes with the Americans and our other partners. President Biden, following our strategic dialogue, decided not to remove sanctions on the IRGC.
By talking with the Americans, we successfully prevented last week, once more, an attempt to ease sanctions on the IRGC, blocked political pressure on the IAEA to close the open files, and prevented granting further concessions to Iran.
After the latest proposal that the European Union put on the table, we told the Americans: "This is not what President Biden wanted." It is not what he talked about during his visit in Israel, and it is not what he signed on in the Jerusalem Declaration.
At the same time, we made it clear to the Americans that the State of Israel will not be dependent on Iran's decisions, nor on those of the world powers. As the Jerusalem Declaration states, we have the right to defend ourselves. If an agreement is signed, it will not oblige us. We are not a party to it and it will not limit our actions.
The IDF and the Mossad have received instructions from us to prepare for any scenario. We will be ready to act to safeguard Israel's security. The Americans understand that, the world understands that, and the people of Israel should as well.
Thank you very much.
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