Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's efforts to persuade US President Joe Biden to abandon attempts at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal "are not likely to bear fruit," according to a US official.
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Bennett landed in Washington early on Wednesday morning (Israel time) for his first meeting on Thursday at the White House with the US leader since Israel's new government was sworn in.
He is also expected to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Bennett plans to push for a new Iran strategy during his White House visit, saying he will urge Biden not to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
The talks will be relatively low-key. The two leaders are expected to speak briefly to a small pool of reporters during their Oval Office talks but will not hold a joint news conference.
Bennett is less dramatic but publicly just as adamant as former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in pledging not to allow Iran, which Israel views as an existential threat, to build a nuclear weapon, telling a cabinet meeting on Sunday the situation was at a critical point.
"Iran is advancing rapidly with uranium enrichment and has already significantly shortened the time it would take to accumulate the material required for a single nuclear bomb," he said.
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A recent IAEA report confirmed that Iran has produced uranium metal-enriched up to 20 percent fissile purity for the first time and lifted the production capacity of uranium enriched to 60 percent.
Under the 2015 nuclear accord, Iran had agreed to keep enrichment at just 3.67 percent and also promised not to produce uranium metal.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
