Putin praises nuclear deal with Iran in call with Netanyahu

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that the deal on Iran’s nuclear program would improve security in the Middle East and guaranteed that Tehran would not acquire nuclear arms.

Congress has two months in which to review the Vienna accord before voting to accept or reject it. Israel, which bitterly opposed negotiations with Iran from the outset, has been lobbying Congress for months in an attempt to block the deal. Netanyahu has called the deal a “historic mistake”.

According to the text of the agreement, Iran will be recognized by the United Nations as a nuclear power and will continue its uranium enrichment program.

Putin said the nuclear deal “envisages reliable guarantees of the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program”.

Putin also stressed the “need for joint efforts by all parties concerned to combat the threats from the Islamic State terrorist group”.

“Just because we identify existential threats does not mean we will give in to them”, Netanyahu said. Israel, on the other hand, has expressed concerns that Iran will create a nuclear weapon despite the agreement. “This agreement is awful, it would have been preferable had there been no agreement, rather than this one”.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on May 25 that all issues surrounding the delivery of the S-300 system to Iran were progressing well, adding that the defense system would be delivered to Iran in the soonest opportunity possible.