Lapid: Netanyahu's campaign against Iran deal is a colossal failure

Yesh Atid leader says Netanyahu caused the White House to stop listening to Israel.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: JULY 13, 2015 12:01
Netanyahu and Lapid (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Netanyahu and Lapid
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz said Monday morning that the ongoing negotiations in Vienna over Iran's nuclear program will likely lead to a deal that will be completed in the next day.
"As things look now, it's final. The nuclear deal with Iran will be signed in the next day," Stenitz told Army Radio.
Netanyahu speaks about Iran deal
Steinitz defended the government's handling of the Iranian nuclear issue and said Israel's diplomatic efforts led to sanctions being imposed on Iran. The minister also said that Israeli intelligence mitigated the interim nuclear deal with Iran.  
Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid, on the other hand, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's diplomatic campaign on the Iranian nuclear issue has been a "colossal failure." 
Lapid said the diplomatic efforts must now shift to focus only on the international supervisory mechanisms on the Iranian nuclear program. 
In a separate interview that Lapid gave on Monday morning he said that Israel was sidelined from the talks with Iran because the White House shut Netanyahu out.
"I also am not thrilled by  [US President Barack] Obama's polices. But Netanyahu crossed a line that caused the White House to stop listening to Israel," Lapid told Army Radio.
"In the last year we weren't even in the arena, we had no representative in Vienna, our intelligence cooperation was harmed, and the door to the White House was closed to us," he added.   
 
Netanyahu, alone among world leaders publicly railing against the apparently impending nuclear deal with Iran, said Sunday that Iran is not hiding its aggressive intentions against Israel and the US even as the negotiations in Vienna are continuing.
He said that the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted over the weekend as saying that Iran “needs to plan to fight the US regardless of whether there is an agreement.”
Herb Keinon contributed to this report.