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Israel Warns White House over Striking Partial Nuclear Deal with Iran
(Wall Street Journal) Laurence Norman - Israeli officials are urging the White House not to strike a partial nuclear deal with Iran that would offer Tehran partial sanctions relief in exchange for freezing or winding back parts of their nuclear work. "Such an agreement would be detrimental and would only benefit the Iranian regime....It would be an enormous gift to Iran's new, radical and IRGC-affiliated regime," a senior Israeli official told the Wall Street Journal. Israeli officials warn a partial agreement would boost the resources Iran has to intervene across the region, would leave Western powers beholden to constant Iranian threats to resume nuclear-fuel production, and would legitimize Iranian violations of nuclear safeguards rules set by the UN atomic agency. "Such an agreement will convince the Iranian public and countries in the region that nuclear blackmail works," said the Israeli official. Israel opposed the 2015 deal, arguing that its temporary limits on Iran's nuclear work didn't block Iran's long-term path to produce nuclear weapons. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel wouldn't allow Iran to create a nuclear-weapons program and achieve hegemony in the Middle East. "We hope the world does not blink, but if it does, we do not intend to," he said.