US envoy says Israel’s ‘hands not tied’ on Iran, even if nuke deal signed

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said on Thursday Israel won’t be faced with any American restrictions if it wishes to act against Iran, whether or not a nuclear deal is signed between Tehran and world powers.

“The president… will do whatever he can do to make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon… It’s clear we’d like to do it through a diplomatic channel,” Nides told Channel 12 news.

Regarding the progress of the negotiations on a deal, he said: “The Israelis know very clearly exactly what is going on. I’m not suggesting they necessarily like it always, but there are no secrets here.”

Channel 12 asked Nides if the US expects Israel to “sit quietly and not do anything” if a deal is signed.

“Absolutely not. We’ve been very clear about this,” Nides said. “If we have a deal, the Israelis’ hands are not tied. If we don’t have a deal, the Israelis’ hands are certainly not tied.”

“Israel can do and take whatever actions they need to take to protect the state of Israel,” he added.

But Nides also dodged a direct question on whether Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will be delisted from the US list of terror groups as it rejoins the nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, as he also did in a Channel 13 interview.

Tehran has said that taking the IRGC off a US terror list is a condition for restoring the deal.

Israeli officials have openly expressed their concerns over this possibility, with the latest occurring during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel earlier this week for the Negev Summit.

During a press conference on Sunday with the American top diplomat, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett referred to Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia last week, which he called “horrific,” adding that he was concerned over the possible removal of the IRGC from the US Foreign Terrorist Organizations list as part of a revived nuclear deal with Tehran.

“I hope the US will hear concerned voices in the region, from Israel and others, on this issue,” he said.

Bennett also protested the notion of the IRGC being delisted during a cabinet meeting earlier Sunday.

“We are still hoping and working toward preventing this from happening,” he said.

Blinken said during the press conference that “there is no daylight” between the US and Israel on the efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, as well as countering its threats to the region.

He added that the US will maintain that stance regardless of whether a new Iran nuclear deal is reached.

“Deal or no deal, we will continue to work together and with other partners to counter Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the region,” he said.

Blinken had reportedly asked Bennett during their meeting on Sunday for his alternative to a nuclear deal with Iran during his visit, according to a report Thursday by the Axios news site, citing a senior State Department official and an Israeli official.

According to the report, Blinken asked Bennett how he would stop Iran from being capable of obtaining a nuclear weapon, when at its current enrichment pace, it would be able to within weeks.

Israeli officials said Bennett told him Iran can be deterred from enriching uranium at weapons-grade levels, if it knows Western nations will ramp up sanctions to the level they’ve been imposed on Russia, the report said.

The Israeli officials also said that Bennett described a revived Iran deal as “a Band-Aid” solution for a few years and merely allow Iran to expand its support for its regional terror proxies.

“It is us here in the region that will have to deal with that afterward,” Bennett told Blinken, according to a senior Israeli official.

The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action gave Iran relief from heavy sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program to prevent it from obtaining atomic weapons, a goal Tehran denies it seeks. In 2018, the Trump administration pulled the US out of the deal and reimposed sanctions. Iran has responded by dropping many of its commitments and ramping up its nuclear program.

European-sponsored talks in Vienna are aiming to bring the US back into the deal and see Iran recommit to its terms in return for lifted sanctions.

‘Nobody like violence’

Asked by Channel 12 about Israel’s efforts to tackle terrorism amid a wave of attacks, Nides said: “We’re not going to tell the government what to do.”

Regarding Blinken’s highlighting of settler violence and settlement expansion during his recent visit, as opposed to Palestinian terrorism, Nides says: “No one likes violence. Period. It doesn’t matter if it’s settler violence [or], you know, Palestinian violence.”

He said he made clear, in his own confirmation testimony, that the Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists and their families must be halted: “Martyr payments… must stop,” he said.

He stressed US support for the two-state solution, noting: “We can’t lose the vision… [though] we can’t impose anything on anyone.”

Nides also said the US was “very comfortable with what the Israelis are doing vis a vis Ukraine,” despite complaints out of Washington that Israel had failed to adopt anti-Russia sanctions or send equipment to Ukraine’s army.

“When we have issues, we express them, as Israel expresses them to us… I am very comfortable today on the relationship, with what they’re doing with Ukraine,” Nides said.

Israel has long maintained good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, and has been seeking to use its unique position to broker an agreement between the two sides, as it tries to walk a tightrope maintaining its ties to both countries.

Ukraine has repeatedly pushed Israel for more support since Russia launched its invasion. But Israel has been seeking to avoid antagonizing Russia, which has a strong presence in Syria, where Israel carries out military action against Iran-linked groups.