”The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis must be stopped’

Israel fears world powers are rushing toward “very bad deal” with Iran • Minister Yuval Steinitz: Even minimal conditions for worthy framework deal are far from being realized • PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Russian, Indian leaders about Iran deal.

By Shlomo Cesana, Eli Leon, Yoni Hersch, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters, TOI

With less than 72 hours remaining before the deadline for a framework nuclear agreement between six world powers and Iran,Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the emerging deal “bears out all of our fears, and even more than that.”

At the start of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, “I just came from speaking with the Republican leader in the Senate, Senator [Mitch] McConnell, and over the weekend I spoke with the Democratic leader in the Senate, Senator Harry Reid. I heard from both of them strong and robust bipartisan support for Israel, which is, of course, very important. I expressed to them my deep concern regarding the emerging agreement with Iran in the nuclear talks. This deal, as it appears to be emerging, bears out all of our fears, and even more than that.”

Netanyahu also referred to the conflict in Yemen, saying, “In Yemen, the proxies of Iran are taking over large parts of the country and they are attempting to seize control of the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb strait.

“After the Beirut-Damascus-Baghdad axis, Iran is conducting a pincer movement to the south to conquer the entire Middle East. The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis is very dangerous to humanity, and must be stopped.”

Israeli officials fear that world powers are rushing toward a “very bad deal” with Iran.

According to International Relations, Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, the emerging deal is problematic and full of loopholes. “We hope that the principle coined by President [Barack] Obama, ‘No deal is better than a bad deal,’ still stands,” Steinitz said over the weekend. “The fact that the Iranians are insisting on continuing research and development of much more advanced and efficient centrifuges, together with their unwillingness to answer IAEA questions and reveal their past illegal nuclear activities, means that even the minimal conditions for a worthy framework agreement are far from being realized.”

“Iran is continuing to wear the West down,” Steinitz stated. Steinitz said Iran must not be allowed to continue research and development of advanced centrifuges that would be 20 times more efficient than the centrifuges Iran currently possesses.

Over the weekend, Netanyahu spoke by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the emerging nuclear deal. The Prime Minister’s Office gave no further details about the conversations.

On Saturday, the foreign ministers of France and Germany joined the top U.S. and Iranian diplomats to help break an impasse in nuclear negotiations as world powers and Iran closed in on a two- or three-page accord that could form the basis of a long-term deal.

The negotiations, in progress for nearly 18 months, aim to hammer out an accord whereby Iran halts sensitive nuclear work in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif have been in Lausanne for days to try to reach a preliminary deal by a self-imposed deadline of March 31, and they held several rounds of talks on Saturday.

But close as they have come to the outline of an agreement, the two sides still have deep disagreements that could wreck a deal. Zarif says the six world powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — are now the ones who must compromise.

“In negotiations, both sides must show flexibility,” Zarif said on Twitter. “We have, and are ready to make a good deal for all. We await our counterparts’ readiness.”

Western officials close to the talks said it was up to Iran to compromise on the remaining sticking points, which include Iran’s ambitions concerning nuclear research and development and the immediate removal of U.N. sanctions.

“The serious but difficult work continues,” a senior U.S. State Department official said. “We expect the pace to intensify as we assess if an understanding is possible.”

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters upon arrival in Lausanne that he hoped for “a robust agreement.”

“Iran has the right to civil nuclear power, but with regard to the atomic bomb, it’s ‘no’,” he said.

“We have moved forward on certain points, but on others not enough,” he added.

After meeting Fabius and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Zarif said he believed all sides could progress in such a way as “to resolve all the issues and start drafting a text that can be turned into a final deal.”

Steinmeier compared the talks to the final stage of a mountain climb.

“The endgame of the long negotiations has begun,” he said. “And here, with a view of the Swiss mountains, I’m reminded that as one sees the cross on the summit the final metres are the most difficult but also the decisive ones.”

Before taking a bike ride, Kerry lunched with Fabius and Steinmeier to discuss the remaining obstacles to a deal and had further discussions in the afternoon.

The Russian, Chinese and British foreign ministers were due to arrive on Sunday.

Western and Iranian officials familiar with the negotiations cautioned that the talks could still fail.

“The sides are very, very close to the final step and it could be signed or agreed and announced verbally,” a senior Iranian official familiar with the talks told Reuters about the two- to three-page document the sides hoped to be able to issue in the event of an agreement.

Ahead of meeting Zarif, Kerry said he expected the discussions to run late. Zarif added that the meetings would run through “evening, night, midnight, morning.”

Separately Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Twitter that he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and that the two agreed on the need for a resolution of the nuclear issue. Earlier this week Rouhani sent a letter to the heads of state of all six powers, including to Obama, with the same message. He also spoke on the phone with five of the six leaders, but not with Obama.

If agreed, the outline document would cover key numbers for a comprehensive agreement between Iran and the six powers, such as the maximum number and types of uranium enrichment centrifuges Iran could operate, the size of uranium stockpiles it could maintain, the types of atomic research and development it could undertake and also details on the lifting of international sanctions.

Several Iranian officials denied that Iran was close to agreeing on the document, but a Western diplomat said such comments were aimed at a domestic audience.

“The difficulty is that the Iranians are not moving enough. They like to negotiate right up to the precipice and they’re very good at that,” a Western diplomat said.

One key number is expected to be the duration of the agreement, which officials said would have to be in place for more than 10 years.

The framework accord should be followed by a comprehensive deal by June 30 that includes full technical details.

As she arrived in Lausanne on Saturday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the sides involved in the talks have never been closer to a deal than now.

“As you know, we have never been so close to a deal, still we have some critical points that need to be solved and we will work in these hours, over the weekend, to try to bridge the gaps,” Mogherini said.

Late last week, Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona slammed Obama’s foreign policy, quoting a Gulf state leader as saying it was now “more dangerous to be a friend of America’s than an enemy.”

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Fox News on Thursday, “The Iranians] have been cheating for the last 20 years, this facility [Fordo] was found out in 2009. At the end of the day it is a hardened site. To allow enrichment here would be, I think, very irresponsible. … It would be delusional for any P5+1 agreement to allow [Iran] to enrich in a fortified facility. The Arabs are not going to accept such a deal, and they’ll get a bomb of their own, then you’re on the road to Armageddon.”