Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Monday strongly criticized the deal that appears to be emerging from the talks on Iran's nuclear program, warning it would represent "a great danger to the peace of the Western world" and "a danger to the security of the state of Israel," the Times of Israel reported.

The United States, the remaining four permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, which seemed to approach an agreement with the Islamic Republic in talks held in Geneva over the weekend, are dealing with a "messianic, apocalyptic" Iran, Yaalon said.

A two-phase deal between Washington and Tehran, which would impose tough restrictions on Iran's nuclear program for at least a decade before providing the country some leeway, had seemed to be taking shape on Monday, according to The Associated Press.

Under the agreement, Iran could operate more centrifuges than the United States first demanded, though they would run at lower capacity than they currently do. The country would be forced to ship out most of the enriched uranium or change it to a form that is difficult to reconvert for weapons use.

But Israeli officials fear the final stages of uranium enrichment, which is necessary to produce weapons-grade fuel, can be done in small and easily concealable spaces. The proposed agreement, thus, might increase the risk of Tehran being able to advance to full nuclear capacity.

"The trajectory is worrying," an unnamed Israeli official told the Jerusalem Post.

The source, who said the emerging deal did not come as a surprise to the administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, contended Western negotiators had considerably softened their stance with respect to their original demands on Tehran.

"In the beginning, the position of the world powers was that Iran should have no centrifuges," the official said. "Then, in the interim agreement, (the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany) accepted the concept of some sort of symbolic enrichment, to allow the Iranians to save face."

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