Israeli Prime Minister Speaks Over Phone With Biden on JCPOA

TEL AVIV (Sputnik) - Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid held a phone conversation with the US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, discussing the negotiations on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran, the prime minister's office said.

"Prime Minister Lapid and President Biden spoke at length about the negotiations on a nuclear agreement, and their shared commitment to stopping Iran's progress towards a nuclear weapon," Lapid's office said in a statement.

The leaders also discussed recent developments and what the prime minister's office referred to as "Iran's terrorist activity in the Middle East and beyond."

Lapid underscored the importance of the strikes authorized by Biden in Syria, the statement said, referring to last week's precision airstrikes against ammunition depots used by groups linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The JCPOA deal was sealed in 2015 by China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union. Former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

Talks between Iran and the global powers to revive the deal and end US sanctions on Iranian oil exports have gained momentum recently. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel said on Wednesday that an agreement to revive the 2015 nuclear deal will hopefully be reached in the next few days.