Israeli Official: "Tel Aviv's" Policy on Iran "Colossal Failure"

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In an interview with The Times of "Israel", Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the military intelligence research unit of "Israel," lamented his government ignoring his and his colleague's assessments of Iran shifting to a more moderate position and called their policy on Iran a "colossal failure."

He expressed that "the inability to verify what is happening at the Iranian nuclear sites will be one of the significant catalysts for a dramatic exacerbation of pressure on Iran."

The former intelligence chief detailed how encouraging the US to withdraw from the nuclear deal and impose "maximum pressure" sanctions, halted a moderate shift in Iran's policies and accelerated its nuclear efforts after the election of former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. 

When asked if the alternative strategy was the maximum pressure campaign, he responded by saying it was a "catastrophe, and that "Israel" was "very naive to think that they could force the regime to choose between its survival and its nuclear program. Because backing down from its nuclear ambitions means losing its independence, in a way."

He added that "the way "Israel" looked at Iran has always been very black and white."

At the time, Aviv Kohavi, who is currently head of the Israeli Occupation Forces, presented a position paper to then-president Benjamin Netanyahu, in which he indicated an important strategic shift: Iran had become more moderate and was ready to negotiate with world powers. 

Read more: Reframing Vienna: What about Iran’s Side of the Story?

This comes at a time when a well-informed source in Vienna told Fars News Agency that during the opening session of the talks between Iran and P4+1, one of the negotiators implicitly referred to the role of Israelis in sabotaging the nuclear agreement in Iran.

The negotiator then reminded everyone of the damage inflicted on the Iranian agency’s cameras and surveillance equipment and stressed the fact that it was the doing of a third party.

The Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, published an article earlier today by its envoy to Vienna, Ze'ev Ibrahimi, in which he said that at the conclusion of the first day of talks on the nuclear deal on Monday, the European Union representative, Enrique Mora, went out to the talks, and told reporters, "It is an Iranian regime. New, with new understandings, but there was a consensus of views today that the current seventh round will be conducted on the basis of the understandings achieved in the previous six rounds."

Israeli media is also discussing Arab-Israeli frustration and concern over any progress achieved.