Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz renewed the call for the formation of a regional alliance headed by the United States to confront Tehran, and said that there are efforts to expand security cooperation with Gulf countries, and for its part, Iran vowed to respond "crushingly" to the slightest threat targeting its lands.
Gantz made it clear - during an award ceremony for Israeli soldiers on Tuesday - that Iran is closing the cameras at its nuclear sites, expanding its "aggressive operations" in the region, rejecting attempts to reach a nuclear agreement with it and continuing its "defiant" measures.
He added that there is a need to build a joint force led by Wash. in confronting Iran, after making a similar invitation recently, during his visit to Washington.
The Israeli Defense Minister pointed out that "the partnership and deep relationship with our American partners and allies, as well as the relations that we have built and developed in recent years, with the countries of the region, are also an essential element of Israel's superiority" in the region.
Attempts and threats
For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expected that these days will witness attempts to target Israelis in various places outside Israel.
And he added - in a tweet on his Twitter account - that the security services are doing everything they can to thwart these "terrorist operations and to neutralize the senders of terrorists and those who sent them in advance."
Bennett said: We will not hesitate to use the power of Israel everywhere in the world in order to protect our citizens.
In Tehran, Brigadier General Alireza Elhami, deputy commander of the air defense forces in the army, said that the air defenses would respond "overwhelmingly" to the slightest threat to Iranian territory.
He added - during a speech to commanders in the Air Defense Forces - that the Iranian forces "monitor all the demonic movements and practices of the enemies outside the borders," stressing that they do not dare to attack his country.
This Iranian military commander stressed that the air defense forces play an important role in deterring "enemies".
Challenges and facing
In Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said his country would use all means at its disposal to counter the "destabilizing influence" of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards in the region.
Price added that Washington is committed to Israel's security, noting that the challenge posed by Iran in the Middle East will top the agenda of President Joe Biden during his upcoming visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia next month.
With regard to Iran's nuclear file, the US State Department spokesman stressed that his country is ready to return to the nuclear agreement if Iran abides by its restrictions.
Earlier yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian affirmed adherence to diplomacy and negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement with major powers, despite the recent tension with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"We believe that negotiations and diplomacy are the best way to achieve the agreement," Abdullahian said during a press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the capital, Tehran.
He pointed out that before the IAEA's decision was issued, the Iranian side presented a "new initiative" to the United States through the European Union, which Washington accepted, but insisted on proceeding with the draft resolution, without providing additional details.
And the Board of Governors of the United Nations agency issued a resolution last week, proposed by Washington, Paris, Berlin and London, calling on Tehran to cooperate with the agency after a report by the latter criticizing the lack of sufficient Iranian answers to the issue of finding traces of nuclear materials at previously undisclosed sites.
In conjunction with this measure, Tehran announced the suspension of a number of the agency's surveillance cameras in some of its facilities.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian affirmed Tehran's adherence to diplomacy and negotiations (Reuters)
Cooperation and terms
On the other hand, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, said that his country has no problem in continuing cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the rest of the parties abide by their commitments in the nuclear agreement.
Eslami added - in a statement to Iran Press - that there is no program for the visit of IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi to Tehran at the present time.
In 2015, Iran concluded an agreement on its nuclear program with 6 powers (the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China) that allowed for the lifting of sanctions that were imposed on it, in exchange for restricting its activities and ensuring the peace of its program.
However, its effects have been canceled since former US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw unilaterally from it in 2018, and re-imposed economic sanctions on Tehran, which responded, about a year later, by beginning to gradually withdraw most of its basic obligations under that agreement.
As of April 2021, Iran and the parties still to the agreement, with indirect US participation, began talks in Vienna aimed at reviving it.
The talks made progress that brought the negotiating parties close to reaching an understanding, but they were suspended as of March, with points of disagreement remaining between Tehran and Washington.