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Iran: President Hassan Rouhani’s Chief of Staff said that the Biden administration is independent and will not obey all Israeli orders like the previous US government, as Israel announced that it was revising the plan of attack against Iran.
Israel’s military has been preparing “several operational plans in addition to the space already” in Iran’s response to boost its nuclear program in recent months, top general Aviv Kochavi said on Tuesday.
His comments were seen as a threat to the new United States President Joe Biden, who has indicated that he intends to re-enter the historic nuclear agreement signed between Iran and world powers in 2015.
Mahmoud Waizi, the Chief of Staff of the President of Iran, dismissed Kochawi’s comments as a “psychological war” and said that Israel “in action, they have neither a plan nor the ability to carry out”.
“Some officials in the Zionist regime think Washington will accept whatever they say,” he told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “But I believe that the new American administration has its own independence – just as other countries have their own freedom.”
Vaizey said former US President Donald Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who appeased Israel and fulfilled his wish in Washington.
The official said Israel and others like Saudi Arabia in the region are now lobbying against Iran in Washington, but “we should not take such things seriously”.
Vaizey reported that Iran conducted several military exercises in January using missiles, submarines and drones, some referring to them as “a sign that we do not want war, but are serious in protecting the country”.
When asked by reporters about the Israeli military chief’s remarks, First Vice President Ishaq Jahangiri said: “Israel is not at a level to threaten Iran.”
Nuclear agreement
Biden has promised to resume Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers in 2018, enforcing stricter economic sanctions on Iran.
But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that the process would be slow and that the US would expect Iran to act first. Iran, meanwhile, has said it will re-accept all its nuclear promises if the US first lifts the embargo.
Rouhani said on Wednesday that it was the US that withdrew from the deal in 2018, not Iran. “[US] owes us, not the other way round,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had an important role in formulating the hawkish Iran policy under Trump, opposed a nuclear deal or a withdrawal of any kind of agreement with Iran.