Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an apparent message to US President-elect Joe Biden, said on Sunday there should be no return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by President Donald Trump.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) are seen during a press conference in Jerusalem on August 24. Photo: Xinhua

Biden, who takes office on January 20, has said he would rejoin the accord if Tehran first resumed strict compliance, and would work with allies "to strengthen and extend it, while more effectively pushing back against Iran's other destabilizing activities."

The agreement, which world powers reached with Iran, sought to limit Tehran's nuclear program to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons in return for the easing of economic sanctions. But the deal, abandoned by Trump in 2018, did not restrict Iran's ballistic missile program nor its support for militia in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

"There must be no return to the previous nuclear agreement. We must stick to an uncompromising policy to ensure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said in a speech in southern Israel.

He did not mention Biden directly, but his comments were widely interpreted by Israeli media as a message to the incoming president not to bring the US back into the agreement. Netanyahu was a strong opponent of the 2015 accord, calling it a "very bad deal" in an address in 2015 to the US Congress that further strained his relationship with Obama.
Newspaper headline: Israel: No going back to nuclear deal