Following army chief's announcement of fresh plans to strike Iran, Gantz meets with Depths Corps, which is responsible for operations far from Israel's borders
Iran Leaders Keep Focus on Biden As Israel Threatens Military Strike Over Nuclear Deal
On 1/27/21 at 6:53 AM EST
Iranian leaders are trying to keep the pressure on President Joe Biden in the hope he will quickly lift American sanctions and rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal, even as the head of the Israel Defense Forces threatens military action if the accord is revived.
President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday made more of what have become near-daily comments on Biden s plan to rejoin the JCPOA, from which former President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
Though both sides are in favor of reviving the JCPOA, Iran is demanding that the U.S. lift crippling sanctions before it returns to full compliance. But the Biden administration has said the JCPOA can only come back into force if Iran scales back its nuclear activity in line with the original deal.
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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a cabinet meeting, as his chief of staff Mahmoud Vaezi sits at right, in Tehran, Iran, July 10, 2019. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
A senior Iranian official on Wednesday dismissed as psychological warfare remarks by the Israeli chief of staff regarding the preparation of plans to hit Iran’s nuclear sites and said the Jewish state doesn’t have the ability to carry out such a plan anyway.
“We are serious in defending the country,” said Mahmoud Vaezi, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s chief of staff.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Vaezi was responding to a Tuesday speech by IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi in which he said he had directed the military to prepare fresh operational plans to strike Iran to block its nuclear program.