Iranians humiliated US point man by shunning him in Vienna: Israeli analyst

A senior Israeli military analyst says the Islamic Republic humiliated the United States’ point man on Iran by refusing to talk to him during nuclear negotiations in Vienna.

“The person responsible for the Iranian file in the American administration was sitting in Vienna and the Iranians insulted him and refused to speak to him,” Amos Yadlin, director of the domestic security studies center at the Tel Aviv University told Israeli army radio on Wednesday.

The talks began on Tuesday between Iran and the remaining signatories of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers.

An American delegation was also in Vienna, but the team led by Robert Malley, special envoy for Iran, did not take part in the talks as Iran has ruled out any direct or indirect engagement with Washington.

The US left the JCPOA in 2018 and reimposed the sanctions that the deal had lifted. Iran has repeatedly asserted that it would not enter any fresh talks with Washington unless it removes all the bans in one step and in a verifiable manner.

Both before and during the Vienna talks, the Islamic Republic reasserted its position, emphasizing that it would not engage in any direct or indirect talks with the US while it attends the negotiations in the Austrian capital.

US President Joe Biden has expressed an alleged willingness for Washington to return to the deal but has so far stopped short of taking any practical measures towards the purpose.

Apparently referring to Washington’s potential re-emergence as a JCPOA member, Yadlin said, “There is discussion about the stages in which they will return to the original agreement, which Israel thinks is very problematic.”

The Israeli regime played an essential role in instigating the previous US administration to leave the JCPOA.

Ever since Biden’s team floated the idea of a likely resumption of Washington’s participation in the accord, Tel Aviv has been sending clear signals through its officials and media outlets that it retains its opposition to the international agreement and removal of the anti-Iran sanctions.

Iran beat US at ‘maximum pressure' game

Yadlin, a former Israeli army general, who also used to head the Israeli military’s intelligence directorate and act as a military attaché to Washington, said Iran had managed to beat the US at Washington’s so-called “maximum pressure” game.

"Whoever is under maximum pressure is the Biden administration in the face of the Iranians, and what is happening since the change of administration is that the Iranians have stopped fear and found ways to circumvent the sanctions,” he said.

‘Israel always avoids war with Iran’

Separately, the analyst addressed the issue of the Israeli regime’s reported attacks against Iranian vessels throughout regional waters.

He touched on a recent incident at the Red Sea apparently involving an Iranian vessel that, according to The New York Times, was the work of Israel.

He acknowledged that the Israeli regime was leading a sabotage campaign against Iran. The drive’s aim, he specified, was to face the Iranian presence with defeat in Syria among other things.

The Islamic Republic has been lending successful military advisory support against foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists to the Syrian military at the Arab country’s request.

However, Yadlin asserted that the occupying regime would always “restrict the escalation so that we do not reach a full confrontation.”

Iran has unequivocally announced that it would respond with all its might to any potential Israeli aggression targeting either the country or its interests. Such a response, Tehran has warned, would leave the regime with far greater a damage that it could ever want to afflict on the Islamic Republic.

‘Israeli goals tied with those of Saudi, UAE’

Yadlin also referred to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the occupying regime’s “new allies.”

The UAE and Bahrain entered US-facilitated normalization deals with the Israeli regime last September.

The deals, observes say, would not have been possible without the approval of Riyadh that tries to establish itself as the “Big Brother” among the Persian Gulf region’s Arab states.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Saudi capital after the deals were signed, meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman there.

“The interests of Israel are tied to those of Saudis and Emiratis, which are fighting in Yemen” against the Yemeni defense forces, Yadlin said.

“Israel knows that it can help out its new allies, and this is a very important point,” he added.

Riyadh and its allies, including Abu Dhabi, has been waging a war against Yemen since 2015 to restore power there to Saudi-aligned officials.

Sana’a has repeatedly warned, amid the war that has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, of existence of an American-Israeli plot to exploit the Yemeni people and their resources.

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