Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid sharply criticised the emerging agreement between the United States and Iran, describing it as “a disaster” and accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of failing across multiple regional conflicts.
Speaking at a press conference in the Knesset in Jerusalem, Lapid said: “The agreement reached with Iran is a disaster. The political management of the entire event was extremely poor, and everything that should not have happened has happened.”
He added that, from Israel’s perspective, the most serious issue was that “this agreement was written in our absence from the negotiating table.”
Lapid’s comments followed reports by Axios citing US officials who said Washington and Tehran were close to an agreement that could include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, allowing Iran to resume oil exports and restarting negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
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US President Donald Trump had earlier announced that negotiations on most terms of a possible agreement had been completed and that details would soon be revealed.
According to reports, Pakistan has been mediating between Washington and Tehran following the conflict that began on 28 February with US and Israeli attacks on Iran before a temporary ceasefire was reached in April.
Lapid also launched a broader attack on Netanyahu’s leadership, saying: “Time and again, Netanyahu’s government sets goals and fails to achieve them. It failed in the war on Gaza, in Lebanon, and in Iran.”
He described Netanyahu as “a talented man, but old and exhausted,” adding that the prime minister is surrounded by people “not qualified to run a country.”
Lapid argued that the failures belonged to the government rather than the state itself, saying: “It wasn’t the State of Israel that failed in Iran, Lebanon and Gaza; it was the government.”
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