The call French President Emmanuel Macron had made in 2018 for a "new nuclear deal" with Iran is still valid today, Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Tuesday just before a meeting with the French president at the Elysee palace.
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"You were right then, and your are even more right today", Lapid said.
Lapid ahead of his trip said he would press French President Emmanuel Macron on the Iranian nuclear negotiations. Recent efforts by world powers to revive a 2015 deal known as the JCPOA have so far been fruitless.
A senior aide to Lapid said that while Israel opposes a return to the JCPOA, it could accept a tougher accord.
The people of Israel are lucky to have Lapid as its new prime minister, Macron said just before the two held their one-on-one meeting.
Speaking to cameras, Macron also said that there was "no alternative" to political dialogue to ease tensions between Israel and Palestinian authorities.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Tuesday that Iranian warships have been patrolling the Red Sea in recent months, and called their presence there a threat to regional stability.
"Today, we can confirm that Iran is methodically basing itself in the Red Sea, with warships patrolling the southern region," Gantz said at a roundtable event in Athens.
"In the last months, we have identified the most significant Iranian military presence in the area, in the past decade," he said. Gantz's office said he presented satellite images of four Iranian warships patrolling the Red Sea.
Israel and a number of Arab countries share concerns about Iran's influence in the region as well as Tehran's nuclear program. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Ahead of a visit to the Middle East by US President Joe Biden next week, Gantz has called for stronger security ties with Gulf Arab states that drew closer to Israel under a 2020 US-sponsored diplomatic drive.
On Saturday, Iran-backed Hezbollah, an armed group in Lebanon, sent three drones towards an Israeli offshore gas rig that were intercepted by Israel's military.
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