Actor Michael Douglas talked about the Iranian nuclear deal in an interview with the LA Times. Photo: Today.

Famed actor Michael Douglas weighed in on the Iran nuclear deal currently being negotiated in Vienna, saying that in Europe and Israel people believe the U.S. is being duped by Iran, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday.

“There are people in Europe and Israel who feel we’re [the U.S.] really being played for [the] patsy, that we do not understand,” said Douglas, who recently received the prestigious Genesis Prize for his contributions to Jewish life.

“There are parties that seem to know a lot and are concerned” that if economic sanctions are lifted, Iran will have more funds to aid militants while working to procure a nuclear weapon, he continued.

Douglas visited Israel in June with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones to accept the Genesis Prize, a $1 million award to recognize the promotion of Jewish pride. The prize money was doubled this year to $2 million after a donation from billionaire philanthropist Roman Abramovich.

The actor, whose father is Jewish, told the LA Times he “totally supports” the two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict, but said that it would be hard to accomplish if the other state “doesn’t acknowledge Israel’s right to exist or voices calling for its destruction.”

He said the Jewish state is almost perceived as “the bully on the block, which is ironic when you think of a country surrounded by people who don’t even acknowledge they exist.”

“When you’re in Israel, you realize how vulnerable the situation is … Israel’s responsibility is to articulate and clarify that narrative what their next steps are going to be,” he continued.

Douglas also commented on the hotly debated issue of Israeli settlement in the West Bank, suggesting that Israel might “find a kind of a balance to make up for those settlements that might stay.”