The Israeli minister of strategic affairs, intelligence and international relations, Yuval Steinitz, said that “like the failed agreement with North Korea, this agreement is likely to bring Iran closer to obtaining the bomb.”
“Israel cannot take part in the international celebration, which is based on Iranian duplicity and self-deception,” he said.
One Israeli minister even warned that the pact could result in a nuclear attack against the West. “If five years from now a nuclear suitcase explodes in New York or Madrid, it will be because of the deal that was signed this morning,” the economic minister, Naftali Bennett, said in a statement.
Israeli outrage may have been fueled by the government’s sense of not having been kept fully in the loop by the Obama administration. Another minister, Silvan Shalom, was asked on Israel Radio if Israeli officials had been informed about the secret American-Iranian talks held over the past few months in Oman, as reported by The Associated Press early Sunday.
“It is not important whether or not we were informed,” Mr. Shalom said. “What is important is if we knew of it, and we did know.”