Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett addressed world leaders at the Davos World Forum yesterday, urging them to avoid investments in Iran over its ongoing support of terrorism.
“Investing in Iran is not a sound investment, whether there is a deal or not a deal. Their economy is tanking. The rial is depreciating. They are so incompetent that they are not able to get water to faucets in huge swaths of land, for example in the Isfahan area,” Bennett said during his online address to the world leaders.
“I don’t see any rationale why it makes sense for the free world to sign a deal with them that would give them money, and at the same time allow them to continue [enriching],” he added.
The reference to “sign a deal” refers to the on-again-off-again renewed talks by the original deal’s signatories — the US, UK, Russia, France, China, and Germany — along with the European Union, to renew the 2015 nuclear deal designed to keep Iran, led by the Islamist “supreme leader” Ayatollah Khamenei from developing a nuclear weapon.
Israel is a bystander while the talks drag on and Prime Minister Naftali has declared that Israel retains the right to act in self-defense regardless of the outcome of the talks. Significantly, amid all the reporting on the delicate negotiations, there has been no mention of the Ayatollah’s repeated threats to annihilate Israel.
As the Vienna talks stumble on, the nations involved have not appeared to make sufficient progress toward reaching an agreement. In addition, recent attacks by Iranian-supported militias against American troops in Iraq this month continue to demonstrate Iran’s apparent lack of commitment toward reaching a diplomatic deal.
Instead of focusing on a renewed agreement, Iran has repeatedly expressed a desire for revenge over the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani two years ago. Soleimani, the commander of the Quds division responsible for international terrorism, was killed in Iraq by an airstrike authorized by then-president Donald Trump.
The nations involved in the Abraham Accords also provide a new potential alliance for opposing Iran’s terrorism plans. The new normalization agreement, signed in 2020 between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE, has led to a series of new efforts between the nations that includes strategic security against Iranian aggression.