Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

CIA expects no revival of Iran nuclear deal, but Americans warn Israeli officials they won't go to war over it, according to media

CIA expects no revival of Iran nuclear deal, but Americans warn Israeli officials they won't go to war over it, according to media

The team of CIA Director William Burns is said to have dashed Israeli hopes for US military action against Iran under President Ebrahim Raisi. It comes after the Israeli defense minister reportedly insulted NATO. 
CIA Director William Burns’ team is said to have dampened Israeli hopes for US military action against Iran under President Ebrahim Raisi. It comes after a reported insult made to NATO by the Israeli defense minister.

Burns made his first visit to the Middle East as CIA chief this week. In Israel, Iran was the focus of negotiations with officials. According to Haaretz sources in the Israeli government, members of the Burns delegation told their Israeli counterparts that it was unlikely that the US and Iran would come to an agreement on renewing the US-abandoned 2015 international nuclear deal.

And even if Tehran refuses to continue negotiations, “it does not look like the Americans have the intention of responding militarily, and it is unlikely at the moment that there will be such a response,” a source told the newspaper.

The Israeli government of new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett maintains the same bellicose stance toward Iran that his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu maintained. The confrontation has become more acute with the change of government in Tehran, where conservative hardliner Raisi was sworn in as president last week.

The talks on a possible revival of the nuclear deal, which is formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), were launched after President Joe Biden took power in the US. The Trump administration withdrew from the agreement in 2018, launching a so-called “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran instead. Tehran eventually responded by gradually refusing to observe its part of the deal, which offered the country the lifting of sanctions and business opportunities in exchange for accepting limitations on its nuclear industry.

Months of indirect negotiations in Vienna, which mostly happened during the tenure of Raisi’s more moderate predecessor Hassan Rouhani, failed to result in a breakthrough. The new Iranian president didn’t pull his country out of the talks, but with him in charge, a positive outcome seems even less likely.

Israel used Burns’ visit to paint the new Iranian leader as unstable and untrustworthy, giving the Americans a dossier to back this assessment, according to Israeli media. “The Mossad [Israeli intelligence agency) described him as someone with mental disturbances,” Israel’s Channel 12 claimed, citing a source.

The CIA director’s visit comes amid an escalation in what appears to be a clandestine maritime conflict between Israel and Iran, in which the two parties allegedly target each other’s commercial ships with sabotage. Last month, the oil product tanker MT ‘Mercer Street’ was targeted by a suspected Iranian drone attack, which resulted in the deaths of two crew members. Tehran denied any involvement in the incident.

According to Haaretz, Israel’s efforts to push its Western allies into retaliating against Iran with force resulted in a diplomatic flop. Defense Minister Benny Gantz reportedly called NATO “an organization that shies away from action, and does nothing” during a UN Security Council meeting on the tanker incident, which representatives of NATO allies present at the session reportedly found rude and tactless.

Gantz’s media adviser, Amir Koren, downplayed the remark, saying his boss simply cited an opinion given “by someone who said that 20 years ago.” The minister felt he could be less diplomatic in his current position than a foreign minister would be under the same circumstances, Koren told the newspaper.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
×