US Is Using IAEA’s Grossi To Exert Pressure On Iran, Says IRGC Paper

Bennett stressed the importance of the relationship between Israel and Russia, highlighting the "million" Russian speakers who live in the country.

Bennett’s predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu regularly had meetings with Putin to regulate their interactions regarding Syria.

Bennett also confirmed Israel's international status was "significantly strengthening" and was progressing well.

Bennett will meet Putin to discuss political, security and economic issues, including the Iran nuclear program.

The two countries operate a military hotline to coordinate air force operations over Syria to avoid clashes.

Israel often attacks Iranian-linked targets in Syria, while Russia has provided protection for the Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria.

Russia is one of the international parties that negotiated a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

The deal fell apart after then-President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

But the new US administration is now trying to revive the deal that would lift sanctions and offer a lifeline to the Islamic Republic — a step that Israel, Saudi Arabia and others in the region oppose.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud discussed the Iran nuclear talks with the European Union envoy, Enrique Mora, the Saudi Foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"They discussed developments regarding the Iranian nuclear program talks, and international efforts to ensure that Iran does not violate international agreements and treaties in this regard," it added in a statement.

Iran has been enriching uranium far beyond limits set by the 2015 nuclear agreement, JCPOA. The West and many regional countries are concerned at the possibility of Iran becoming a nuclear threshold state.

Prince Faisal met with US Special envoy Rob Malley on Thursday also to discuss the Iran nuclear talks. Saudi Arabia, which opposed the JCPOA and backed former president Donald Trump in leaving the deal in 2018, wants the US to introduce new issues, including Iran’s missile program and links with regional allies.

Saudi Arabia has tempered its approach since US president Joe Biden took office in January committed to restoring the JCPOA and has held a series of exploratory talks with Iran in Baghdad designed to explore easing tensions.

Nour News, a website close to Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani, reported Thursday morning that the two truck drivers had been handed over to the Iranian embassy in Baku and were preparing to leave the country.

Reflecting eased tensions between the two countries, Azerbaijan said its decision to free the drivers was "guided by principles of humanitarianism, mutual respect, and good neighborliness."

The move followed a phone-call between Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov October 13 during which the two sides agreed to put a stop to "harmful rhetoric" and resolve problems through dialogue.

Iran’s Roads and Transportation Agency ordered transport companies Wednesday to "comply with the laws" and "take the sensitivities of [Azerbaijan] into consideration” given its acquisition of territory from Armenia during the 44-day Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of 2020. This, the agency said, would require Iranian drivers to avoid the Armenian-populated Karabakh enclave of Azerbaijan when travelling through Armenia.

Nour News on Wednesday said "lack of due diligence of some private transportation companies" had given "certain anti-Iranian factions” in Azerbaijan “an excuse" against Iran and had led to Baku making "verbal challenges…[that] are not in either country's interests."

Nour News welcomed the communique from the Roads and Transportation Agency, which it said would “block the path to any squabbles by those opposed to [good] relations between the two countries and certain third parties while illustrating Iran's official and constant stance of respect for the territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan.”

Baku restricted Iranian access to Armenia along roads it captured from Armenian forces last year, but Iran-Azerbaijan relations have been remained strained since the war when Tehran was alarmed by reports of Turkey deploying militant Sunni fighters recruited in Syria to join Azerbaijani forces. Tehran has been long been concerned over Azerbaijan’s relationship with Israel, an oil customer, and reports that Baku has allowed Israeli access to its airspace.

After the arrest of the two Iranian truck drivers, officials and media in both countries ramped up critical rhetoric. Iran held extensive military drills near the border area after military drills between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Pakistan.

In a no-nonsense interview Wednesday with Iran International TV, Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, confronted what he called “misunderstanding” and “misinterpretation.”

Ulyanov was probably in part referring to reports that Iran had requested a meeting with the European Union in Brussels to slow down the resumption of talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 deal as tactic to gain an advantage. “Further delay may be counterproductive,” he said.

The envoy clearly downplayed reports that Iran is seeking to persuade the EU to influence the United States over the talks, which have been suspended since June in their efforts to revive the 2015 deal, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

“My good colleague Enrique Mora from the European Union visited Tehran October 14, the Iranian side in its turn expressed willingness to pay a visit to Brussels before the end of the month,” said Ulyanov. “So what?”

The ambassador pointed out that Mora − the EU foreign policy chief who coordinates the JCPOA Joint Commission, the formal body for the Vienna talks − could not negotiate for other state signatories.

“Real negotiations can take place only in Vienna in a multilateral format with proper proxy participation of the United States,” said Ulyanov. Washington, which left the JCPOA in 2018, takes part indirectly in Vienna alongside the remaining JCPOA signatories – China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and the United Kingdom.

While the US state department said Monday it saw no need for the possible Brussels meeting, Ulyanov compared the proposal in terms of “normal diplomatic practice” to Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s October 6 visit to Moscow and Amir-Abdollahian’s October 15 phone-call with Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. As an attendee of the Moscow meeting, Ulyanov said he had found it productive.

The remaining 10%

Nonetheless, “close contacts with Iranian counterparts…should not be interpreted as a separate track of negotiations between Russia and Tehran on nuclear issues,” Ulyanov said.

The envoy expressed Moscow’s understanding that the new Iranian administration of President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) “some time to be prepared, to establish a new negotiating team,” just as it had taken the US administration of President Joe Biden two months in office to enter the Vienna talks.

But Ulyanov also said Russia had “expected the talks to resume in a couple of weeks” and that it was now “high time” to resume. He pointed out it was four calendar months since the sixth round in Vienna ended June 20.

Ulyanov judged that 90 percent of the challenges involved in reviving the JCPOA had been settled in Vienna. The remaining 10 percent were “rather controversial” issues, but despite this and the “time-consuming” process, he said the “chances for success are rather high.”

The “10 percent” reportedly involved reaching agreement over which US sanctions, including those imposed as it left the JCPOA in 2018, needed to be lifted for Washington to return to the nuclear deal, and how Iran should reverse the steps it has taken since 2019 in expanding and improving its nuclear program.

As multilateral nuclear talks with Iran remain suspended and its uranium enrichment continues to generate fissile material, Liberman told Walla news site that “a confrontation with Iran is only a matter of time, and not a lot of time.”

While the United States and its European allies still insist that agreement can be reached if Iran does not delay the talks, Liberman said that “no diplomatic process or agreement will stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Israeli officials have been warning in recent months that Iran is getting close to the point of no-return and Israel cannot afford to wait for intricate diplomatic processes. Liberman reiterated the point that for Israel Iran’s nuclear program is perceived as an existential threat.

Liberman said that Iran is a bigger threat for Israel that it is for other countries. “They have stated that their policy is the destruction of Israel, and they mean it.”

The government has asked parliament for $1.5 billion more military budget citing the danger from Iran and the need to prepare for it.