Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid is hoping to talk to President Biden about the new Iran nuclear deal that appears to be on the way to fruition, but lately, according to reports, he hasn’t had much luck. According to The Jerusalem Post, Lapid was unable to reach Biden by phone, with the White House first blaming the president’s recent vacation — which ended Wednesday. With both men set to address the United Nations General Assembly in September, Lapid is hoping for a one-on-one meeting. Israel is pessimistic about recent developments with the Iran nuclear deal, as Iran and the P5+1 nations go back and forth in an effort to finalize the terms. Still, Lapid is optimistic that his administration’s communications with White House officials have been meaningful. “This is a bad deal,” Lapid told a meeting of the Yesh Atid party, while acknowledging that as the U.S. responded to Tehran’s recent demands, “[t]The Americans accepted much of what we wanted them to put in the draft and that is a welcome change.” ISRAEL’S SPY CHIEF CALLS IRAN DEAL A ‘STRATEGIC DISASTER’ Lapid and Biden met during the president’s trip to Israel in July, and the two men held a joint press conference, but that was before the European Union offered its “final” proposal on the Iran deal. Since then, the Israeli prime minister has held talks with the leaders of Germany and France, who are participating in the negotiations along with the US, the UK, Russia and China. After his conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, Lapid tweeted that they “discussed the importance of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.” ISRAEL’S PRIME MINISTER ON FOX: “WE WELCOME US STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARDS IN SYRIA” Macron has acknowledged that the current state of the deal does not address some issues, including Iran’s ballistic missile program. But he claimed the deal as it stands would be “useful and is better than no deal,” the Post reported. In recent days, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Ganz met with White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The Defense Department told the Post that Ganz pushed for an increase in Israel’s capabilities to counter Iran, stressing “the importance of maintaining and advancing operational capabilities for both defensive and offensive purposes in [the] face of Iran’s nuclear program as well as its regional aggression.”
