Look at Opponents of Nuclear Deal-Making With Iran Iran wants U.S.-led sanctions rolled back, and Western nations and others seek to limit Iran's ability to enrich uranium to levels that could lead it closer to producing nuclear weapons. But negotiators face resistance from Western allies such as Israel and Gulf states toward any pact that keeps Iran's nuclear program generally intact and dissent within Iran from hard-liners opposing any nuclear concessions or diplomatic outreach to Washington. It's unlikely that critics could derail international efforts to ease one of the Middle East's most far-reaching standoffs, which has brought Israeli threats of military action, past warnings by Iran it could block critical oil tanker shipping lanes in retaliation for sanctions and opened rare public discord between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. But the voices of opposition could influence the speed and scope of nuclear talks. It also has the potential to further reshape relations between the U.S. and two of its main allies in the region, and bring deeper tensions and brinksmanship within Iran between hard-line forces and the moderate-leaning government of President Hassan Rouhani. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he "utterly rejects" any emerging nuclear deal between Western powers and Iran, and pledged that Israel would do what was needed to defend itself - a clear reference to past warnings of military action to degrade Iran's nuclear capabilities. Israeli leaders believe Iran not has wavered from its aim to develop a nuclear weapon despite the Islamic Republic's repeated insistence that it seeks reactors only for energy and medical applications. Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, citing hostile Iranian rhetoric toward the Jewish state, Iranian missiles that can reach Israel and Tehran's support for anti-Israel militant groups led by Lebanon's Hezbollah. Netanyahu says pressure must be maintained until Iran halts all enrichment of uranium, rids itself of its stockpile of enriched uranium and closes enrichment facilities. Israel also wants Iran to halt work on a heavy water reactor, which produces a greater supply of plutonium byproducts than Iran's sole conventional reactor. Plutonium can be processed for use in a nuclear weapon, although Iran is not believed to currently possess the technology. Israel also is worried about any shift in the region's strategic balance. Israel is widely believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, although Israeli officials neither confirm nor deny the speculation. For years, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah repeatedly urged the United States to "cut off the head of the snake" by attacking Iran's nuclear facilities. Now, Saudi officials are dismayed over Washington's efforts to end the 34-year diplomatic estrangement with Tehran. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states consider Iran as their chief rival in the region and - in a rare alignment of views - side closely with Israel's outlook that Iran should be stripped of its ability to enrich uranium. Gulf states are major buyers of advanced U.S. military equipment, but Saudi Arabia has hinted it could one day build closer strategic ties with nuclear-armed Pakistan as a way to guarantee its own de facto nuclear weapon status to counterbalance Iran. Washington, which has often said it fears an atomic arms race in the Gulf, would certainly oppose such an alliance.