Jerusalem: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today cautioned world powers not to rush into an agreement with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, saying the situation was getting "worse and worse" each day.
"We are now witnessing a stark retreat from the red lines that the world powers set themselves only recently and publicly," Netanyahu told his ministers at the weekly cabinet here today, two days before the set deadline for clinching a deal is to expire.
"There is no reason to rush into an agreement with Iran as each day the situation becomes worse and worse," he added.
The Israeli Prime Minister stressed that it was still not too late to insist on the demands that would prevent Iran from arming itself with a nuclear weapon and gain mass sums of money which he claimed would help it expand its regional aggressions.
The remarks come as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany known as the P5+1 continued nuclear negotiations with Iran in Vienna. The deadline for an agreement is set for June 30.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, meanwhile, met this morning for the third time in 24 hours.
European Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini also arrived in Vienna today to join the talks.
Mogherini hinted to the media that if necessary, the sides would have to extend the negotiations beyond the June 30 deadline in order to reach an agreement and that "political will" was still needed.
"Getting a deal is going to be tough, but not impossible," she said. "It is going to be tough, it has always been tough but not impossible. It is a matter of political will. The reasons for having this agreement done are still there, probably now more than ever,"
Mogherini told reporters. Kerry was expected to meet later in the day with Mogherini, and after that with the foreign ministers of France, Britain and Germany. The main differences in the negotiations revolve around the pace and timing of sanctions relief for Iran in return for its steps to restrain its nuclear programme and on the nature of monitoring mechanisms to be put in place to ensure that the
country does not manage to cheat on any agreement.
Israel has dubbed the Iranian nuclear programme an existential threat and has vowed to "keep all options on the table" to foil such ambitions in veiled threats, indicating the possibility of resorting to a military strike if required.
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