US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will visit Israel next week to discuss the future of the so-called Iran nuclear deal.
Sullivan is expected to meet in Israel with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz. He will also head to Ramallah to meet Palestinian officials.
The Israeli government fears that the Biden administration will make concessions to Iran if there is no progress in the current negotiations in Vienna. The Israeli authorities believe that this will ease sanctions on Iran without curtailing its nuclear program.
The deal was recently discussed by the foreign ministers of the G7 countries, which includes the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. After the talks, they issued a joint statement urging Iran to “stop nuclear escalation and seize the opportunity to reach an agreement as long as possible.”
During the seventh round of negotiations, Iran effectively gave up all the concessions it was willing to make in the previous rounds, and also put forward new demands. Washington believes that Tehran has continued to develop its nuclear program “in a particularly provocative manner.”