Israel’s National Security Adviser to fly to DC with sensitive information on Iran

The meeting will take place in person due to the sensitive nature of the information that Israel wishes to convey.

By World Israel News Staff

Meir Ben-Shabbat, Israel’s national security adviser, will leave for the U.S. this week for an extremely brief meeting with his American counterpart, Jack Sullivan, Israel Hayom reports on Monday.

The meeting between Ben-Shabbat and U.S. National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan will only last a few hours and will take place at the Israel Embassy in Washington, D.C. Israel Hayom reports the reason for this is that Ben-Shabbat intends to provide sensitive information that can only be exchanged between in a physical meeting.

Ben-Shabbat and Sullivan have met virtually as part of a bilateral strategic group set up by the U.S. and Israel designed mainly to prevent surprises and misunderstandings between the two sides as the U.S. negotiates its way back into the 2015 Iran nuclear accords.

“Apart from Ben Shabbat, the head of the Mossad, Yossi Cohen, will also travel to the U.S. capital this week. He is expected to meet with the head of the CIA and other senior members of the American intelligence community,” a source told the Israel daily.

IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi was also reportedly to travel to the U.S. to discuss the Iran deal. However, he put those plans on hold due to the escalating situation in the south of the country.

Israel opposes America’s return to the deal, whose provisions it views not only as ineffective in preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, but actually providing a pathway to a bomb due to its ‘sunset’ clauses.

After a strategy session on Iran held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Thursday, it was decided that Israel’s representatives visiting the States would express opposition to the deal but wouldn’t go into any further details about Israel’s position.

Israel Hayom‘s source says that if there are talks about an improved deal, then Israel will express its views on what provisions should be included.

However, at the same time the source says that Israel’s representatives will make suggestions, such as not removing all the sanctions and insisting that for each sanction cancelled, Iran will cancel one of its violations.

Israel will also reportedly ask for a tougher inspection process. Under the 2015 deal, Iran had three weeks to prepare for an inspection, enough time to clean up any weapons site. Israel wants inspectors to have the ability to visit without warning.

Iran nuclear dealMeir Ben-ShabbatNational Security Advisory staff