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Israel to lobby US Congress against nuclear deal with Iran

12 November 2013 18:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israeli Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Naftali Bennett is planning a trip to the United States to lobby the US Congress in a bid to prevent any possible deal with Iran over its nuclear energy program, APA reports quoting Press TV.

Bennett’s scheduled visit will take place on Tuesday before the resumption of talks between Tehran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Russia, China, France, Britain and the US -- plus Germany in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 20.

"Before the talks resume, we will lobby dozens of members of the US Congress to whom I will personally explain…that Israel's security is in jeopardy," Bennett told Army Radio.

The Israeli minister added that he intends to push the Congress into toughening the US unilateral sanctions against Iran.

Iran and the six major world powers discussed Iran’s nuclear energy program behind closed doors in Geneva, Switzerland. The intensive talks kicked off on November 7 and stretched into the early hours of November 10.

The two sides could not reach a deal in Geneva, but stressed that significant progress had been made and expressed optimism about the prospect of achieving a deal.

Tension between Tel Aviv and Washington increased after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday utterly rejected the prospects of a possible agreement in the course of nuclear talks between Iran and six major world powers as a “bad deal.”

The US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that negotiations between Iran and the group of six major world powers in Geneva came ‘extremely close’ to yielding results.

“We were very, very close actually, extremely close,” Kerry told the BBC in an interview.