On summit sidelines, Bennett raises spectre of nuclear Iran

IRAN’S nuclear program came up in almost every meeting Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held with world leaders at the COP26 climate conference, a diplomatic source said during a briefing to Israeli journalists.

Bennett held long conversations on the topic with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday, according to the official.

Conversations on Iran largely revolved around two major issues – what world powers can do, and what Israel is doing independently.

“We are in a period where the Iranians still aren’t coming in” to nuclear talks, the official said. “There is a feeling in the world that something has to happen.”

World leaders are searching for a combination of carrots and sticks to urge Iran back to nuclear talks on returning to compliance with the 2015 JCPOA, according to the official, noting that Bennett favours sticks.

“They want to hear what we think, and how we see the intelligence reports,” said the official. “There is attention being paid to the Israeli position.”

On the sidelines of COP26, Bennett met with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, with the two reportedly discussing issues including Iran’s nuclear program and Israeli settlement ­construction.

Sullivan came to Glasgow after a trip to Italy for the G20, where US President Joe Biden met with the leaders of Germany, France and Britain to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. They expressed their “grave and growing concern” at Tehran’s activities, and the US said on Sunday that its allies were in “lockstep” and were looking at “all options” if Iran were to abandon talks.

Bennett and Sullivan’s meeting in Glasgow was held against a backdrop of tensions between Jerusalem and Washington over Israel’s advancement of plans to build thousands of new settlement homes.

Defence Minister Benny Gantz had assured his American counterparts that settlement building would largely be limited to areas within the so-called blocs closer to the Green Line, rather than isolated communities deep in the West Bank that further complicate plans to form a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.

However, the US was dismayed when the location of some of the planned new settlement homes suggested Gantz had failed to deliver on his word.

Additionally, the US demanded an explanation after Gantz announced last month that six civil society groups were being designated as terror organisations, saying that they had effectively operated as an arm for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group in a move that sparked a swift backlash around the globe.

According to Army Radio, criticism from the US has been taking on a harsher tone in recent weeks after a period in which Bennett’s relatively new government was given leeway as it settled in and worked to pass the budget crucial to its survival.

During his trip, Bennett also met with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, Italian premier Mario Draghi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.