EU envoy seeks to placate Israel on Iran deal

The EU ambassador-designate to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, on Monday sought to reassure the Israelis over a nuclear deal struck with Iran. Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program for the next six months in exchange for limited sanctions relief following marathon talks with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany in Geneva that ended Sunday. But Israel slammed the deal as an "historic mistake," having urged for months to keep up sanctions pressure. "We very much have Israel's security at heart," Faaborg-Andersen told a meeting of EU ambassadors with Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz in Jerusalem. Faaborg-Andersen condemned "inflammatory statements (on Israel) coming out of Iran," saying it was "only natural that Israel wants to weigh in on these important negotiations that have been conducted with Iran." But he hailed the deal as the "first time in 10 years" at which Iran's nuclear program had been significantly curbed. Steinitz, for his part, told the envoys "we are not satisfied, to say the least," with the deal. "Actually, we're quite disappointed with the agreement that was signed yesterday." The deal will see Iran cut down its uranium enrichment, but Steinitz said there must be a complete halt. "Our main concern is that Iran will remain, according to this agreement, a threshold nuclear country, which means countries that can produce nuclear weapons in less than a year." He said sanctions had been "sufficient to reach a much better and more comprehensive deal." But he stressed the need to keep sharing intelligence with the EU and ensure a final deal acceptable to Israel. "The dialogue between us and the European Union ... on this topic ... is very good, open dialogue, even while we beg to disagree," Steinitz said.