French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had been well-briefed by his advisers before arriving in Jerusalem on March 25. His one and only mission on his first official visit to Israel was to clarify the extent to which France objects to destroying the Iran nuclear deal. The only way to go about that, Paris believed, was to send in the heavy guns. To that effect, the French foreign minister had backup. On the same day (March 26), in the same place (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office) and with the same objective in mind, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas paid a separate visit.

Anticipating Netanyahu’s rejection of the common European stance, Le Drian and Maas were careful not only to defend the agreement with Iran, but to also extend feelers on a possible compromise in the form of sanctions against Iran’s ballistic missile program. Israeli sources told Al-Monitor that both ministers emphasized defense of the agreement in their meetings with Netanyahu. Any hopes Israel might have had of driving a wedge between Germany and France on the Iran issue proved futile.

Le Drian was, however, confronted with a determined Israeli prime minister who knew exactly how he wanted the conversation between them to develop. Netanyahu spoke first at a small joint press conference before the meeting, setting the tone. After offering condolences on the March 23 terror attack in Trebes, Netanyahu went on to talk about Iran.

“We have to stand together against this terrorism that afflicts our world,” said Netanyahu. “We have to fight terrorists wherever they are. And we have to fight terror-sponsoring regimes wherever they are. The foremost terrorist-sponsoring regime in the world, in our region and beyond is Iran. We have to roll back its aggression, and it is vast, and we must ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons.”