While the entire world watches events in Ukraine, and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is thrust into the role of a key mediator between Kyiv and Moscow, Israel is watching another dramatic development, in Vienna, where a new nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers is set, so it seems, to be signed in the coming days. 

Evidently, Jerusalem has not been happy with the proceedings, which, until the crisis in Ukraine broke out, seemed to be steadily progressing toward a nuclear agreement between Iran and the powers, as far as the West is concerned, depending only on the goodwill — or perhaps not-so-good, depending who you ask — of the Iranians. Since the Iranians tried to extract more and more concessions from the West, until only a few days ago Israel estimated a 50% chance of the agreement being signed soon. 

In the first few days of the crisis between Kyiv and Moscow, it seemed to Israeli officials as if the talks in Vienna on the Iranian nuclear program are happening almost in another world, detached from the war in Ukraine, although the United States and Russia are an important side in the talks with Iran. 

But the developments of the past few days have shown that in such a grave crisis the two urgent issues cannot be disassociated, especially since relations between Moscow and Washington have not been this tense since the fall of the Soviet Union 30 years ago. It is not at all clear that in this state of affairs they could present a united front to Iran to prevent it from becoming a nuclear power.