By Yaakov Lappin
(JNS) — Nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, which began in Oman on Saturday, have raised questions about the risk of Tehran’s exploiting the diplomatic track to gain time and legitimacy for its nuclear program.
The first round of indirect talks between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, concluded in Oman after a little more than two-and-a-half hours, according to international media reports. The next round of talks is scheduled to be held in Oman on April 19.
According to an April 12 Wall Street Journal report, Iran’s demands include rapid sanctions relief, access to billions in frozen assets, and an end to U.S. pressure on Chinese oil buyers. In return, Iran might offer to limit uranium enrichment to 3.67% but is unlikely to reverse existing nuclear progress.
Col. (res.) Dr. Eran Lerman, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told JNS in recent days that in his assessment, “at least in Trump’s mind and in [special United States Middle Envoy Steve] Witkoff’s mandate, it is clear that the move [negotiations] must block Iran’s path to nuclear weapons so that the North Korean nightmare is not repeated.”
An Iranian nuclear breakout would collapse the regional and global order and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, warned Lerman, adding that preventing this from happening must occur “within a limited time.”
Professor Eitan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations and senior fellow at the Begin Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, stated during an April 7 conference call hosted by the Jerusalem Press Club that “every time Prime Minister Netanyahu meets President Trump, there’s some kind of a surprise,” referring to Trump’s Oval Office announcement about direct talks with Iran with Netanyahu sitting beside him last week.
Gilboa explained that Iran-U.S. talks contradict longstanding Israeli strategic positions. “Netanyahu does not believe in negotiations. He does not believe that they will produce an agreement. And if they will produce an agreement, Iran is not going to implement it.”
He continued, “Netanyahu has been advocating a military action — preferably only by the United States or by the United States together with Israel. And so right now, this military option is gone. It’s not in the making. As long as negotiations with Iran are going to be held, there’s no military option.”
Gilboa warned about Tehran’s strategy to prolong diplomacy while evading meaningful restrictions.
“Iran is known for exploiting negotiations endlessly to avoid any restrictions about its nuclear program,” he said. He stressed three key questions: How long will the talks go on for, is the U.S. seeking the complete dismantling of the nuclear program, and would any agreement also cover the Iranian ballistic missile threat.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Professor Jacob Nagel, former acting national security adviser to Netanyahu and ex-head of Israel’s National Security Council, said during an April 4 podcast published by the Washington D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies that Tehran’s nuclear progress has reached a dangerous stage. “Iran is days away from producing at least a bomb’s worth of weapons grade uranium, [or] multiple bombs worth of weapons grade uranium within a few weeks,” Nagel stated.
Nagel emphasized that Iran’s current enrichment levels have changed the nature of the threat.
“Some people say that Iran enlarged its nuclear program because President Trump withdrew from the JCPOA. And I think one of the most important works that FDD did is to show that the running to… the bomb or making the biggest violations started only after President Biden was elected, not after President Trump withdrew.”
Nagel described the nuclear archive seized by the Mossad from Tehran in January 2018 as clear evidence of Iran’s true intent. “There was a command to build five warheads, each one of them 10 kiloton. This is something that we found out in the archive,” he recalled.
According to Nagel, the U.S. must set red lines before any negotiations. “The only way, if you really want to stop Iran from having a nuclear program, at least for now, is is to put a precondition to these negotiations… rollback. Go back to what your situation was in 2009.”
These conditions should include the destruction of Iran’s enrichment facilities, the removal of enriched uranium, and the closure of weaponization activities, as well as the missile ballistic missile programs, said Nagel.
Netanyahu, in remarks to his Cabinet reported by Walla News on April 9, stated that Israel knew in advance about the talks between the U.S. and Iran on the nuclear program.
Netanyahu told ministers he had requested that Trump impose a time limit on the negotiations with Tehran. Netanyahu also the cabinet that Israel is fully coordinated with the American administration on Iran.
Gen. Charles “Chuck” Wald, USAF (ret.), Distinguished Fellow at the Washington D.C.-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America, and a former Deputy Commander of U.S. Military European Command, said during a JINSA webinar held last week that the U.S.’s military posture is robust and ready.
He estimated that 5,000-pound bunker-busting bombs and other bombs are ready for deployment. Wald said that once such a strike begins, “you’ve got to go after their [Iranian] nuclear capability and their [Iran’s] ability to expand their mission out into Israel again with their missiles.”
He added, “We can’t treat the Iranians the way we wish they were. We have to treat them the way they are. I have very little faith that the negotiations are going to work, and I have a real high probability in mind that we’re going to have to do something militarily.”
Yaakov Lappin Yaakov Lappin is an Israel-based military affairs correspondent and analyst. He is the in-house analyst at the Miryam Institute; a research associate at the Alma Research and Education Center; and a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University.