Lapid: Nuclear Deal to Give Tehran $100Bln to Destabilize Region

Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid during a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. (Reuters)
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid during a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. (Reuters)
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Lapid: Nuclear Deal to Give Tehran $100Bln to Destabilize Region

Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid during a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. (Reuters)
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid during a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, August 24, 2022. (Reuters)

A new nuclear deal between world powers and Iran would allow other nations to avoid sanctions and give Tehran $100 billion a year to destabilize the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Wednesday.

“On the table right now is a bad deal. It would give Iran a hundred billion dollars a year ... that will be used to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terror around the globe,” Lapid said. Iran denies fomenting terrorism.

He said this money will fund the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij who oppress the Iranian people. It will fund more attacks on American bases in the Middle East and will be used to strengthen the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas Movement, and the Islamic Jihad.

Lapid stressed that Israel is not against any agreement.

“We are against this agreement because it is a bad one. Because it cannot be accepted as it is written right now,” he said in a briefing with foreign correspondents in Israel.

The Premier affirmed that Israel has an open dialogue with the American administration on all matters of disagreement.

“I appreciate their willingness to listen and work together. The United States is and will remain our closest ally, and President Joe Biden is one of the best friends Israel has ever known,” he affirmed.

An emerging deal, Lapid said, “does not meet the standards set by Biden himself, preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear state.”

He was careful not to openly criticize the United States and slammed Iran and the West directly.

He said that the European Union presented last week its "final" proposal to revive the deal and asked for Iran’s response.

Tehran, as usual, did not reject this proposal, Lapid stressed, but it sent a draft including some amendments and other demands.

He said he had spoken in recent days with the leadership of Britain, France and Germany, to reaffirm his country's opposition.

“I told them these negotiations have reached the point where they must stop and say ‘enough’,” he said.

A senior Israeli official at the prime minister's briefing said the draft text does not stipulate the destruction of centrifuges used to enrich uranium, allowing Iran to "restart" them at any time.

Israel is dispatching Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday to Washington, where his team said Iran would be on the agenda of bilateral talks.

According to senior officials in Tel Aviv, Gantz will try to persuade the US administration not to sign the new deal.

However, they pointed out that he realizes his weak influence and must consider long-term actions.

Gantz will discuss with US officials the post-deal period, the possibility of adding some articles to the agreement, annexing it or any other way to ensure it does not retract from the agreement or violate it, the sources explained.

The Minister will join Israel’s national security adviser, Eyal Hulata, who arrived in Washington earlier this week for talks with Biden administration officials.

They will both hold talks with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.



Rubio: 83% of USAID Contracts Will be Canceled

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with the media on his military airplane as he flies to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia March 10, 2025. SAUL LOEB/Pool via REUTERS
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with the media on his military airplane as he flies to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia March 10, 2025. SAUL LOEB/Pool via REUTERS
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Rubio: 83% of USAID Contracts Will be Canceled

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with the media on his military airplane as he flies to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia March 10, 2025. SAUL LOEB/Pool via REUTERS
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with the media on his military airplane as he flies to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia March 10, 2025. SAUL LOEB/Pool via REUTERS

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the US was cancelling 83% of programs funded by USAID, as the Trump administration guts spending not aligned with its “America First” agenda.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) distributes humanitarian aid around the world, with health and emergency programs in around 120 countries, and critics warn that slashing its work will affect millions of people.

“After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID,” Rubio said on social media platform X.

“The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.”

US President Donald Trump returned to office on January 20 and immediately ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid pending a review of whether the programs align with his “America First” foreign policy.

The order, and ensuing stop work orders, threw USAID into turmoil, halting the agency's operations around the world, jeopardizing the delivery of life-saving food and medical aid and throwing global humanitarian relief efforts into chaos.

The administration said it provided waivers for life-saving aid, but humanitarian workers around the world said the funding remained shut.

Thousands of staff were put on leave or fired and contractors terminated. The majority of those put on leave are not expected to be reinstated.

On Monday, the top US diplomat also thanked the staffers of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency led by billionaire Elon Musk, who has been conducting an unprecedented scaling down of the US federal government.

“Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform,” Rubio said.

A few hours later, Musk responded: “Tough, but necessary. Good working with you. The important parts of USAID should always have been with Dept of State.”

His comments came after the New York Times reported that he and Musk clashed during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, with Musk accusing the top US diplomat of not carrying out deep enough staff cuts at the State Department.

At the meeting, Trump told his Cabinet heads that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing and policy at their agencies, Reuters reported. Trump denied the NYT report on Friday when asked about it by reporters.

Trump, Musk and Rubio had dinner on Saturday evening at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Sunday.