German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday that nuclear talks with Iran are shifting into their “final phase,” and that despite Israeli reservations, a return to a nuclear agreement would make the region safer, according to a report by The Associated Press.
The remarks were made during a joint press conference held in Tel Aviv with her counterpart, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
AP noted that her remarks “come as negotiations between Iran and world powers reconvened this week in an effort to revive a 2015 nuclear accord that curbed Tehran’s nuclear program. That deal crumbled after the Trump administration withdrew from the agreement in 2018.”
In his own remarks, Lapid said that he and Baerbock discussed the nuclear talks and presented her with Israel’s position “that a nuclear Iran endangers not only Israel but the entire world,” noted the report.
Lapid described Iran as “an exporter of terror from Yemen to Buenos Aires” and called for an agreement to also reflect Tehran’s regional malign activities.
Baerbock said she was “convinced that a full restoration of the JCPOA [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] would make the region more secure, including Israel; otherwise, we would not be having these talks.”
Talks with Iran reached a “very critical point,” she added, and Iran needed to come to the negotiations table “with a willingness to compromise and without maximum demands.”
“We want to do everything we can to ensure that with this agreement, Israel’s security is guaranteed,” said Baerbock.
