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Israel, Iran's arch-foe, supported the U.S. withdrawal from the
accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, who deemed it
too limited, and has been advocating against a re-entry into the
pact sought by President Joe Biden's administration.
Iran, whose nuclear ambitions are seen by Israel as an
existential threat, denies seeking atomic bombs. Since Trump's
walkout, it has breached the 2015 deal by ramping up uranium
enrichment, a process that can create bomb fuel down the line.
"...The Iran nuclear deal seems like it is in the ER room,"
Gantz told a conference on counter-terrorism at Reichman
University. "There's a period maybe after the elections, we'll
see how it goes," he said in an apparent reference to the U.S.
mid-term November elections.
His remarks echoed those of a senior unnamed Israeli official on
Sunday who predicted the deal would not be signed before the
November elections.
Israel is not a party to the Vienna-based talks on reinstating
the 2015 deal. But its threats to take military action against
Iran if it deems diplomacy to be at a dead end keep Western
capitals attentive.
On Saturday, France, Britain and Germany questioned Iran's
commitment to reviving the deal in return for a lifting of
sanctions, comments that were rejected by Tehran and called
"very untimely" by Moscow.
In August, after 16 months of tortuous negotiations, the
European Union laid down a final offer to overcome an impasse
over terms for restoring the agreement.
Earlier this month, Iran sent its latest response to the EU's
proposed text. Western diplomats said this was a step backwards,
with Iran seeking to link a revival of the deal with the closure
of U.N. nuclear watchdog investigations into unexplained nuclear
activity by Tehran.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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