Israeli Minister of Settlement Affairs Tzachi Hanegbi. Photo: Reuters / Francois Lenoir.

i24 News – A US policy shift on Iran could lead to war between Israel and Tehran, Israeli Minister of Settlement Affairs Tzachi Hanegbi warned on Wednesday night, speaking to Channel 13 News.

Despite expectations that Democratic candidate Joe Biden will be harder on settlements, a matter that will directly affect the settlement minister, Hanegbi said the Iran deal is what worries him.

“Biden has said openly for a long time that he’ll go back to the nuclear agreement,” Hanegbi said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action US President Donald Trump withdrew from in 2018.

“I see that as something that will lead to a confrontation between Israel and Iran,” he said. Hanegbi praised Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran, saying it “works and we see results.”

Hanegbi said he sided with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s view, shared by most Israelis according to the settlement minister, that the Iran deal signed by former US President Barack Obama in 2015 was a mistake.

“If Biden stays with that policy,” he said, “there will, in the end, be a violent confrontation between Israel and Iran.”

A potential Trump deal with Iran, he said, would be “a different agreement that he would force through maximum pressure sanctions.”

Biden is currently leading Trump in electoral projections for the 2020 presidential elections, with votes still being counted.