In the video: Netanyahu at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee: No agreement with Iran will bind Israel (Knesset channel)
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan complained during a phone call with his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi last Friday about what the White House sees as Israeli leaks to the media of details of contacts between the United States and Iran. So they told Walla! Three senior American and Israeli officials.
Why it's important:
- The indirect talks between the United States and Iran regarding "understandings" regarding Iran's nuclear program and the prevention of regional escalation were kept secret for several months, and the Biden administration has not officially confirmed their existence to this day.
- A series of publications in Walla! And other media outlets about the indirect talks have drawn criticism of the administration, especially from Republican members of Congress, and a demand that any agreement with Iran be presented to Congress for review.
Representatives of the world powers and Iran at the nuclear talks in Vienna. November 2021 (Photo: Reuters)
Backstage:
- A senior U.S. official said the conversation between Sullivan and Hanegbi was "very difficult," and the complaint about Israeli leaks on Iran was just one of the points of contention raised by the White House national security adviser to his Israeli counterpart.
- A senior US official said that the feeling in the White House is that Israel was behind the leaks to the media in recent weeks about contacts with Iran, and that it is also passing information directly and indirectly to members of Congress who hold a hawkish line on the Iranian issue.
- Sullivan not only complained about leaks from Israel, but also that much of the information published in the media was inaccurate and did not reflect the true contents of the contacts between the United States and Iran, according to the U.S. official.
- A senior Israeli official said the conversation between Hanegbi and Sullivan was friendly, but acknowledged that Sullivan had expressed deep concern about media reports about U.S.-Iran contacts. Sullivan also expressed deep concern about the government's decision to expand settlement construction and attacks by settlers against Palestinian residents.
- While Sullivan's concern about the situation in the West Bank appeared in a White House press release, his claims about alleged Israeli leaks on the Iranian issue were not mentioned at all in the statement.
- One of the reports that angered the White House was Netanyahu's remarks before the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in which he confirmed that the United States was conducting indirect negotiations with Iran in order to reach an "agreement" or "understandings" on the nuclear program.
- Hanegbi told Sullivan that Netanyahu faced criticism from the opposition about the U.S.-Iran talks and had to speak out on the issue. A senior Israeli official noted that Hanegbi stressed to Sullivan that Netanyahu had limited his public statements on the issue to a minimum.
- Israel's national security adviser told Sullivan that, under Netanyahu's guidance, he gave several interviews to Israeli media in recent weeks in which he stressed that security and intelligence coordination with the United States on the Iranian issue is better than ever.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan (Photo: Reuters)
Ron Dermer (Photo: Reuven Castro)
Tzachi Hanegbi (Photo: Reuven Castro)
More in Walla!
- The plan leaked - and the rebellion accelerated: "Prigozhin planned to arrest the army chiefs"
- Netanyahu: China's involvement in the Middle East is good because it will oblige the U.S. to remain in the region
- Miki Zohar: The indictment against Netanyahu was born in sin, the reform was aggressively promoted
- Smoother skin after one use: a revolutionary home care device
News Focus:
- National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer met Sullivan at the White House in early June and received a detailed briefing from him on the indirect contacts between the United States and Iran.
- Dermer said at an American Jewish Committee conference a few days after his return from the United States that he and Hanegbi had held "open and honest" talks with Sullivan, so Israel was not surprised about the contacts between the United States and Iran.
- "We're trying to do what we can to reach an agreement with the U.S. on Iran and we'll keep trying," Dermer said.
- Israeli officials said Dermer and Hanegbi presented Sullivan with some points of concern for Israel when it comes to contacts with the U.S. and Iran, but left the White House with a better understanding of what the Biden administration is trying to achieve with the Iranians.
- Despite the fact that Israel's official position is opposition to a possible agreement with Iran, Prime Minister Netanyahu does not express strong opposition to the current contacts and is not waging a public campaign to try to thwart them, as he did before the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Snapshot:
- It is still unclear whether the United States and Iran have managed to reach understandings on de-escalation in the region and on a "time out" in Iran's progress in its nuclear program.
- The sides are also separately discussing a prisoner exchange deal that will be implemented under the same understandings.
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- Political-Political
Tags
- Benjamin Netanyahu
- Joe Biden
- United States
- Iran
- The Nuclear Agreement
- Iranian nuclear program
- Ron Dermer
- Tzachi Hanegbi
- White House
- congress
- Leaks
- Republican Party