Michael Herzog, a former chief of staff to the Israeli defence minister, described Mr Netanyahu's conditions as "maximalist". While Israel could not be expected to be the first to volunteer a compromise, Mr Herzog added: "I think he knows that if there is going to be a deal, it cannot be on these maximalist conditions." Instead, he said that Israel could live with an agreement whereby Iran exported most of its enriched uranium, allowed tougher international inspections, shut down some key plants, but kept a "symbolic" enrichment capacity – provided that all the uranium was shipped overseas after being processed.