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Israeli Mossad denies its objection to new Iran sanctions

Xinhua, January 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad, denied on Thursday a report claiming the organization opposes U.S. bills that would impose further sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

In an unusual move, the agency issued a statement to the press on Thursday, in which it categorically denied a report by the U.S.-based Bloomberg news organization, claiming Mossad officials expressed their opposition to the law proposals by Republican senators, saying that the laws would irreparably damage the negotiations between the international community and Iran.

"Chief of the Mossad Tamir Pardo met with a delegation of U.S. senators on Jan. 19, 2015," the statement read. "The meeting took place at the request of the senators and with the authorization of the Israeli prime minister."

"Contrary to the report, the chief of the Mossad did not say that he objects to imposing further sanctions against Iran," the statement added. "The head of the Mossad stressed the effectiveness of the existing sanctions on Iran in bringing the country to the negotiations table," it said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been a vocal hardliner when it comes to the P5+1 countries (Russia, China, U.S., U.K., France, Germany) with Iran over its nuclear program, demanding Iran would forego all of its uranium enrichment capacities.

Netanyahu had reiterated that a nuclear Iran is a "danger for Israel," whereas Iran charges its nuclear program is aimed at peaceful purposes.

Republican senators have made several attempts to push for more sanctions on Iran, despite the U.S. President Barack Obama's request earlier this week to avoid such legislation.

Obama said at his State of the Union address on Tuesday that if such bills will pass congress, he will veto them, in order to sustain efforts of reaching a diplomatic deal with Iran.

The aforementioned bills were devised by Senators Robert Menendez and Mark Kirk and garnered the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been invited by Republican House Speaker John Boehner to speak at Congress in one month's time about Iran's nuclear program, just before the Israeli elections are set to take place on March 17.

White House officials were quoted as saying that Netanyahu's arrival to speak at congress is "out of protocol," as rules of conduct oblige Netanyahu to coordinate the visit with the U.S. president first.

There have been mounting tensions between the U.S. administration and Israel.

Among the causes for the growing tensions are the different stances on the negotiations with Iran.

In addition, Netanyahu has been criticized of interfering with U.S. politics in the past, backing Republican candidates whereas, on the other hand, Republican politicians have been criticized for the same thing by Israeli center-left politicians, visiting Israel on official visits for several times in the past year and giving Netanyahu a platform to speak in prior to the Israeli elections. Endit