"The head of the National Security Council is expected to present sensitive information about Iran in the United States" | Israel today

Nuclear agreement on the table • Cohen and Ben Shabbat take off for Washington: "There is information that can only be exchanged in a physical meeting" • The Iranian chief of staff threatened: "An overwhelming response is given"

• The head of the National Security Council, Ben Shabbat

  Photo: 

  Oren Ben Hakon

The head of the National Security Council, Meir Ben Shabbat, will travel to Washington in the coming days, where he will meet for a significant meeting with his counterpart, US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan.

"Israel Today" has learned that the visit will be very short and will in fact last only a few hours.

The meeting will take place at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

After that, Ben Shabbat will return to Israel.

The head of the National Security Council and Sullivan have held several digital meetings in recent months, focusing on the issue of Iran. It seems that there is information that can only be exchanged in a physical meeting between the two, so the head of the National Security Council goes on a short trip.

Apart from Ben Shabbat, the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, will also travel to the US capital this week. He is expected to meet with the head of the CIA and other senior members of the American intelligence community. - If possible.

On Thursday, Netanyahu convened a wide-ranging discussion, in which the Israeli strategy was formulated in light of the rapid progress in contacts between the parties in the Vienna talks.

A diplomatic source said after the hearing that the instruction to senior members of the defense establishment who are flying to talks in Washington is to express opposition to the agreement with Iran and not to discuss it because it is a return to the previous dangerous agreement for Israel and the region.

According to the political source, if in the future there are serious contacts on the part of Iran about an improved agreement, Israel will state its position regarding the characteristics and content that such an agreement should have. He also added that the prime minister emphasized in the discussion that Israel is not a party to the nuclear agreement with Iran and is not committed to it. Another source told Israel Today that in addition to the principled opposition to the agreement, in practice the Israeli representatives are expected to present their American colleagues with some key recommendations. One, to refrain from lifting full and comprehensive sanctions from the Iranians as the administration currently intends to do. Instead, Israel believes that if the sanctions are lifted then it should be done, and only in the form of "the abolition of an American sanction in exchange for the abolition of an Iranian violation."

Another step that senior Israeli officials will take is biting control of Iran, using the "everywhere and at all times" method.

The 2015 agreement stipulated that the Iranians would be given a three-week stay from the moment a breach of the agreement was suspected on their part until an international delegation of inspectors came to inspect the arena on the ground.

Israel wants to deny the Iranians the possibility of blurring evidence, and therefore wants the Americans to include in the agreement a clause that allows inspectors to enter nuclear sites without prior notice.

The chief of staff was supposed to join the head of the Mossad and the head of the National Security Council in Washington, but the IDF spokesman officially confirmed that in view of the security developments, Lt. Col. Aviv Kochavi would cancel his visit, during which he was expected to meet with US security officials.

Meanwhile, the Iranian army chief, Muhammad Bagari, threatened Israel in response, warning: "It is not clear what our response will be, but the Zionist regime cannot afford to rest in peace." : "The Front of Resistance Will Give a Crushing Response to the Scores - The Future of Resistance Glows".