Israeli official: Iran exploiting nuke talks

US’s Undersecretary of State Sherman stops in Israel to brief Amidror Friday after participating in last weeks Almaty nuke talks.

sherman370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
sherman370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Continued negotiations between the international community and Iran have only allowed it to play for time to develop weapons of destruction, an Israeli official said on Saturday.
The official spoke with The Jerusalem Post, one day after a meeting between United States Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman and National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror on Friday.
Sherman arrived in Israel for a brief visit after participating in P5+1 talks with Iran in Kazahkstan last Tuesday and Wednesday.
“The only concrete result of the latest round of talks, is that the Iranians, have got more time that they can exploit to move forward in their nuclear program,” the Israeli official said.
During those talks, the six world powers involved in the talks — the US, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany — offered Tehran the option to ease their ban on trade in gold and other precious metals and relaxation of an import embargo on Iranian petrochemical products.
In exchange, a senior U.S official said, Iran would among other things have to suspend uranium enrichment to a fissile concentration of 20 percent at its Fordow underground facility and “constrain the ability to quickly resume operations there.”
Western diplomats are hopeful that the talks could lead to progress on halting Iran’s nuclear program, while Israel has remained skeptical, believing that Iran is exploiting the situation.
Reuters contributed to this report.