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A number of senior Israeli officials secretly visited Saudi Arabia over the past decade, including Defense Minister Benny Gantz when he was the Israeli army’s chief of staff, signalling deepening covert relations between Israel and the Kingdom, the Israel Hayom daily reported on Sunday.
Ex-Mossad intelligence agency head Tamir Pardo, and former directors of the National Security Council Yossi Cohen and Meir Ben-Shabbat also travelled to the Gulf monarchy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday night that the cabinet had unanimously approved the truce without preconditions on the recommendation of all defense officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, Shin Bet head Nadav Argaman, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat.
The statement said that Israel’s achievements in Operation Guardian of the Walls were „unprecedented.“
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed Cohen before the meeting.
Cohen also met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Thursday, alongside Israel’s ambassador to Washington, in which the Israeli officials expressed „deep concern“ about Iran’s nuclear activities, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Zarif also blames Soleimani for being in cahoots with Russia, which “put all its weight” behind sabotaging the nuclear deal with the U.S. and world powers, as well as allowing Russian fighter jets to fly over Iran for Syrian bombing raids, letting Russia use Iranian airliners to move military personnel and equipment, and deploying Iranian soldiers on the ground in Syria.
The recording, of a conversation in March between Mr. Zarif and an economist named Saeed Leylaz, an ally, was not meant for publication, as the foreign minister can repeatedly be heard saying on the audio. A copy was leaked to the London-based Persian news channel Iran International, which first reported on the recording and shared it with The New York Times.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting to consolidate an Israeli strategy on Iran’s nuclear program given the progress being made among signatories to the deal in talks in Vienna.
According to the official, should Iran engage in serious talks on an improved accord, Israel would share its position on what such an accord should look like. The official further noted that at the meeting, Netanyahu emphasized that Israel was not a signatory to the accord and as such was not committed to it.
An Israeli security delegation due to visit Washington on Monday will not change the Biden administration’s position on rejoining the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said at a press briefing on Friday.
The team of senior officials led by Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat plan to express their objections to the White House, which is currently emerged in indirect negotiations with Tehran in Vienna.
(22.04.2021)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the delegation traveling to Washington, D.C. next week for strategic talks on Iran to stress their objection to a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal and to refuse to discuss its contents, Israeli officials say.
Israel’s National Security Adviser Meir Ben Shabbat spoke to his US counterpart Jake Sullivan over the phone on Saturday.
The phone conversation made for the first contact between the office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the administration of US President Joe Biden.
In the coming months no less than five senior members of the security establishment face replacement.
They are: Yossi Cohen, head of Mossad (Israel’s foreign espionage agency); Nadav Argaman, head of the Shin Bet, (domestic security service); Major-General Tamir Hayman, chief of Military Intelligence, and its Research Directorate director, Brigadier-General Dror Shalom; and finally, Meir Ben Shabat, head of the National Security Council.
(17.07.2019)
During a trilateral meeting between the national security advisers of Israel, the US and Russia in late June, Jerusalem and Washington demanded that Moscow ensure the withdrawal of Iran’s forces from Lebanon and Iraq, as well as from Syria, Channel 13 news reported Tuesday.
The demand was seen as a condition for US and Israeli support for a long-term arrangement to secure peace in war-ravaged Syria.
A diplomatic official told Haaretz that “this unprecedented meeting of two world powers with Israel, in Israel, underscores its global standing and sends a powerful message to the region, especially to our enemies. The meeting is a climax of many political steps, among them Netanyahu’s meetings with presidents Trump and Putin. These meetings created the opportunity for a historic meeting such as this, which will contribute a great deal to Israel’s security interests in the region.”
Spokesman Garrett Marquis said on June 20 that Bolton will meet on June 23 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then hold talks with Meir Ben-Shabbat and Nikolai Patrushev, his Israeli and Russian counterparts.
„It is almost impossible to imagine that after the horror of the war in Iraq when we were lied to by the Bush administration and one of the leading architects was this very same, John Bolton,“ Sanders said.
The Israeli delegation, led by national security adviser Meir Ben Shabbat, met with Bolton and other unnamed officials in the White House, according to Ravid, to discuss possible Iranian plans. Bolton himself tweeted on April 15 about his meeting with Shabbat:
Great meeting with Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat today. The close United States-Israel strategic partnership reflects the tremendous strength of the ties between our governments and the citizens of our two allied countries.
(15.04.2019)
(06.05.2019)
The intelligence about a possible Iranian plot is not very specific at this stage, but the officials said it was clear the threat was against a U.S. target in the Gulf or U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia or the UAE.
The bottom line: An Israeli official told me Mossad drew several scenarios for what the Iranians might be planning: