January 27. After U.S. President Biden took office, the outside world is quite concerned about whether Washington will return to the Iran nuclear agreement.
According to Reuters, on January 26 local time, the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Aviv Kohawi, said that the return of the United States to the Iran nuclear agreement would be a “wrong choice” and has instructed the military to update its military plan against Iran. Kohavey is Israel’s highest general.
He made a speech at the National Security Institute of Tel Aviv University that day and put forward the above viewpoints.
Reuters pointed out that these remarks are sending a clear signal to the new US President Biden: Any diplomatic contact between the US and Iran must be handled with caution.
According to the report, it is rare for the Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces to make such comments on the foreign policy of the United States, and they are likely to have been approved by the Israeli government in advance.
The Times of Israel referred to Kohavey’s speech as a “warning.” The report also said that due to the close relationship between the US and Israel’s armed forces and the fact that IDF officers generally do not participate in political debates, the situation in which officers criticize the foreign policy of the allies is “very rare”.
Kohavey said that from an operational and strategic point of view, it is a bad thing and a mistake to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement or reach a revised version of the agreement.
He accused Iran of violating its commitments after the United States withdrew from the agreement, increasing the concentration and inventory of enriched uranium, reflecting that Iran may eventually develop nuclear weapons quickly.
He said that the National Defense Forces have been instructed to prepare some additional action plans to deal with Iran under the existing military plan, emphasizing that the political leadership will decide whether to implement it, but there must be options on the table.
Relations between Israel and Iran have been tense for years. In August 2018, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement.
This move was generally opposed by the international community, and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomed it.
Before Biden took office as US President, on January 20, Iranian President Rouhani called on Biden to call on the new US government to return to the comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue and lift sanctions on Iran.
