It is "shameful" for the United States and European countries to be negotiating a reentry into the Iran nuclear agreement, particularly when the world is paying attention to the crisis in Ukraine, Danny Danon, Israel's permanent ambassador to the United Nations, said Monday on Newsmax.
"In Vienna, not too far away from Ukraine, you have talks about a new agreement, a bad agreement, even worse than the one that was signed in 2015," Danon told "National Report." "It puts our lives in danger. It puts the stability of the Middle East in danger."
There had been hopes Saturday the negotiators, including the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany, and the European Union would reach a deal with Tehran that would limit Iran's nuclear work while allowing sanctions relief for the country, reports Politico.
However, Moscow presented demands for guarantees on its oil industry, which is being blocked in many nations over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as restoring the nuclear deal would allow Iranian crude oil to return to the world's energy markets, which could further hinder Russia's oil revenues.
But Danon on Monday told Newsmax that Israel does not like to see the "eagerness of the U.S. and European countries actually running to sign any deal with the Iranians."
"They don't think about the future," said Danon. "They just want to say we accomplished an agreement. We have to get ready for our future in order to defend ourselves, by ourselves." Danon also discussed Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's weekend trip to Moscow, where he met Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and talked with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy three times.
Israel wants to take advantage of the open channels it still has with Russia and Ukraine to determine if there is an opening for mediation, Danon told Newsmax.
"We see the horrible pictures coming from Ukraine, and we will do everything in our power to find some kind of an opening for mediation," Danon said. "Putin is a player you cannot actually predict, but maybe we will take advantage of the open channels we have both with Ukraine and Russia in order to use them forward to some kind of mediation."
Russia, meanwhile, remains involved in the Middle East, said Danon, and has sent troops to Syria, so Israel has "to coordinate a lot of activity that we conduct on the northern border."
"When we fight terrorist organizations in Syria and in Lebanon, we build some kind of coordination mechanisms, so we hope that maybe we can take advantage of the dialogue, ongoing dialogue we have with them," said Danon.
There are also strong Jewish communities, in both countries, and with the "waves of refugees" that are fleeing Ukraine, "at least we can say we tried," he continued.
Meanwhile, Israel is preparing to allow 10,000 Jewish refugees from Ukraine citizenship, including over the weekend, when a plane carrying 100 orphaned children landed in the country, and Danon said the world's Jews are accepted in Israel "with no preconditions."
"I hope they would come to Israel in different circumstances, not when they under fire but actually come by choice, moving to our homeland to their homeland, but we welcome them and expect to see a wave of immigration coming from Ukraine but also from Russia because of the sanctions," said Danon.
Note: See Newsmax TV now carried in more than 100 million U.S. homes, on DirecTV Ch. 349, Dish Network Ch. 216, Xfinity Ch. 1115, Spectrum, U-verse Ch. 1220, FiOS Ch. 615, Frontier Ch. 115, Optimum Ch. 102, Cox cable, Suddenlink Ch. 102, Mediacom Ch. 277, AT&T TV Ch 349, FUBO and major OTT platforms like Roku, YouTube, Xumo, Pluto and most smart TV's including Samsung+, Sony, LG, Vizio and more – Find All Systems that Carry Newsmax – Click Here
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.