Jerusalem’s View of the Vienna Nuclear Talks

Iran, the state responsible for more regional destabilization and most of the world’s terrorism, has been sitting in Vienna renegotiating the return to the JCPOA, the 2015 nuclear deal with Russia, China, France, Great Britain and Germany.  The United States, although a major party to the talks, is not even allowed in the same room. Israel and the Gulf states, who have a great deal at stake, are not even party to the talks.

As these talks proceed, Iran has continued to enrich uranium to 60%—well beyond the 3.67% level of enrichment allowed by the JCPOA—and is an easy glade to the 90% level necessary for a nuclear bomb. Iran has also installed new centrifuges which enrich the uranium much more rapidly, and have closed off their suspicious sites to the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors.

In fact, according to Iran’s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, “The very term nuclear negotiations is rife with error.” He feels the entire goal of the negotiations is “to remove the unlawful and inhumane sanctions.”

Will the international community continue to countenance such obvious subterfuge on the part of a menacing, ruthless regime with hegemonic ambitions that has vowed the elimination of Israel? What sort of display is taking place in Vienna and what are the options that remain for Israel and the United States?

Here to discuss this was Brigadier-General (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser of the Israeli Defense Forces.

About the speaker: Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser is Director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center. He was formerly Director-General of the Israel Ministry of Strategic Affairs and head of the Research Division of IDF Military Intelligence. He has published scores of articles and policy papers. He is also one of the Founders of the IDSF (in Hebrew, Habithonistim), a movement that guides the narrative of Israel’s national security needs. An organization of 3,000 reserve officers and operators from the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet and Israeli Police, the IDSF promotes a realistic vision of national security needs based on objective military principles. He is the director of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.