The United Kingdom and Israel will “work night and day” in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, the foreign ministers of the two countries wrote in a joint article.
“The clock is ticking, which heightens the need for close cooperation with our partners and friends to thwart Tehran’s ambitions,” the UK’s Liz Truss and her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid wrote in The Telegraph newspaper on Sunday.
Lapid arrived in London on Sunday for a two-day trip to the UK and France, a day before talks on Iran’s nuclear programme restart in Vienna.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said earlier in the day that his country was “very worried” that world powers will remove sanctions on Iran in exchange for insufficient caps on its nuclear programme, as negotiators convene in Vienna on Monday in a last-ditch effort to salvage a nuclear deal.
One of Lapid’s primary goals of visiting the UK and France is to ensure that banking sanctions against Iran remain in place, Israeli Channel 13 reported.
Lapid is expected to meet his British counterpart Truss on Monday to sign a series of agreements, including a 10-year agreement to work closely on areas such as cybersecurity, technology, trade and defence, according to The Telegraph.
The foreign ministers said in the article that Israel will officially become Britain’s “tier one” cyber-partner, in a bid to improve its cyber-defences as countries around the world face increased threats.
Lapid is then scheduled to attend an event hosted by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where both officials will give speeches.
The foreign minister is slated to travel to France on Monday night, before the meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday afternoon.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, reacted to the joint article by saying it casted doubt on Western intentions heading into the Vienna talks to salvage the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the nuclear deal is formally known.
Source: Aljazeera
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