Netanyahu petrified by possible Trump-Rouhani meeting

The closer Israel gets to the most fateful elections of its history, the faster the pace of security-diplomatic developments, begging the question of what will come first: elections or confrontation. A new government or war?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned on Sept. 9 to his favorite soapbox: Iran’s nuclear project. He sought to reenact his wildly successful 2018 unveiling of Iranian nuclear archives spirited by Israeli agents out of Tehran. This time, in a hastily called press conference, Netanyahu’s success was more limited. He claimed that inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had found traces of uranium at the site he had pointed to during his UN General Assembly speech last year, and revealed the existence of a previously unknown site at which he claimed Iran had developed nuclear weapons. Netanyahu’s claim lacked detail: Iran shut down the second site in Abadah in July 2019 and it is unclear when any activity took place there. Nonetheless, the Israeli claim suggests Iran has violated its commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.