World powers must wake up before returning to nuke deal: Israel Prime Minister

Israeli PM Naftali Bennett speaks as he chairs the first weekly cabinet meeting of the new government in Jerusalem, on Sunday. Pic/AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday opened his first Cabinet meeting since swearing in his new coalition government last week with a condemnation of the new Iranian president. He said Iran's presidential election was a sign for world powers to "wake up" before returning to a nuclear agreement with Tehran.

Iran's hard-line judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, was elected on Saturday with 62 per cent of the vote amid a historically low voter turnout. He is sanctioned by the US in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraq war. Raisi has not commented specifically on the event.

Bennett said at the Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem that "of all the people that (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali) Khamenei could have chosen, he chose the hangman of Tehran, the man infamous among Iranians and across the world for leading the death committees that executed thousands of innocent Iranian citizens throughout the years."

Iran and world powers were set to resume indirect talks in Vienna on Sunday to resurrect Tehran's tattered 2015 nuclear deal, which granted Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

For weeks, Iranian and American diplomats have been negotiating a return to the accord in the Austrian capital through European intermediaries. Sunday's talks are the first since the election of Raisi, which will put hard-liners firmly in control across Iran's government.

Talks planned to restore 2015 deal

Further talks between Iran and global powers were planned on Sunday to try to negotiate and restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was later abandoned by the Trump administration. Senior diplomats from China, Germany, France, Russia, and Britain were due to meet at a hotel in the Austrian capital.

July 10
Day Benjamin Netanyahu will leave the PM residence

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