Israeli PM: World powers must 'wake up' on Iran nuke deal

20/6/2021 19:33

        Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday opened his first Cabinet meeting since swearing in his new coalition government last week with a condemnation of the new Iranian president. He said Iran's presidential election was a sign for world powers to "wake up" before returning to a nuclear agreement with Tehran.
        
        Iran's hard-line judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, was elected Saturday with 62% of the vote amid a historically low voter turnout. He is sanctioned by the U.S. in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Raisi has not commented specifically on the event.
        
        Bennett said at the Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that "of all the people that (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei could have chosen, he chose the hangman of Tehran, the man infamous among Iranians and across the world for leading the death committees that executed thousands of innocent Iranian citizens throughout the years."
        
        Iran and world powers were set to resume indirect talks in Vienna on Sunday to resurrect Tehran's tattered 2015 nuclear deal, which granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.
        
        For weeks, Iranian and American diplomats have been negotiating a return to the accord in the Austrian capital through European intermediaries.