WarSclerotic

Meeting of national security advisers at White House comes a day after massive Israeli air force drill to simulate striking Iranian nuclear facilities; US denies taking part

By EMANUEL FABIAN and JACOB MAGIDToday, 5:33 am  

IAF and AFCENT F-15 and F-16 jets are seen over southern Israel during the ‘Desert Eagle’ drill, August 10, 2021. (Israel Defense Forces)

National Security Council chairman Eyal Hulata and his US counterpart Jake Sullivan met Wednesday in Washington for talks largely focused on Iran, with the two pledging economic, diplomatic, and military coordination to stop Teheran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

“The officials committed to coordinate on efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and toward deterring Iran’s aggressive regional activities, said a joint statement after a meeting at the White House of the US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group.

“They also discussed economic and diplomatic steps to achieve these goals and reviewed ongoing cooperation between the US and Israeli militaries,” the statement said.

The commitment came the day after dozens of Israeli Air Force fighter jets conducted air maneuvers over the Mediterranean Sea on Tuesday night, simulating striking Iranian nuclear facilities.

The SCG has met several times since the start of the Biden administration to coordinate efforts aimed at curbing the various threats posed by Iran. The meeting was attended by foreign policy, defense, and intelligence officials from both governments, the White House said in a statement.

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“The US and Israeli officials committed that, working toward the same goal, they will remain in close coordination on the full range of issues of mutual interest and to remain united against all threats to their national security.”

Hulata was expected to have discussed US President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and the West Bank, which is slated to take place in late June. Additionally, he was reportedly slated to receive an update on US efforts to broker an agreement that will see Egypt transfer the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia.

National Security Council chairman Eyal Hulata (L) and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in front of the White House on October 5, 2021. (Jake Sullivan/Twitter)

That deal requires Israeli approval because of the multinational observer force that has been deployed on the islands since the Jewish state’s peace deal with Egypt. As a result, the US and Israel are reportedly pushing Riyadh to take a series of small steps toward full normalization with Jerusalem.

Tuesday’s military drills included “long-range flight, aerial refueling and striking distant targets,” according to a statement Wednesday from the IDF.

According to Channel 13 news, more than 100 aircraft — as well as navy submarines — participated in the drill that spanned some 10,000 kilometers.

The jets were refueled twice during the simulation, as they circled Cyprus and conducted mock airstrikes in Israel, the report said. Meanwhile, the elite helicopter search-and-rescue Unit 669 was on standby to assist pilots who may have needed to abandon their planes.

Earlier this month, The Times of Israel learned that the drill — as part of the military’s major Chariots of Fire exercise — would simulate a widescale strike in Iran, including against its nuclear facilities.

Chariots of Fire, which involves nearly all branches of the IDF, has been focusing on training for fighting on Israel’s northern borders, including against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

Troops during a major exercise in Cyprus, May 31, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)

In light of growing uncertainty regarding a return by Iran to the 2015 nuclear deal amid long-stalled negotiations with world powers, the past year has seen the Israel Defense Forces ramp up its efforts to prepare a credible military threat against Tehran’s nuclear facilities.

At the beginning of last year, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi announced that he had instructed the military to begin drawing up fresh attack plans against Iran. By September, Kohavi said the army had “greatly accelerated” preparations for action against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Still, defense officials estimate that while some aspects of the IAF’s strike plans, which are still in their early stages, could be ready within a short period of time, others would take more than a year to become fully actionable.

In addition to having to find ways to strike Iranian facilities that are buried deep underground, requiring specialized munitions and tactics, the IAF will have to deal with increasingly sophisticated Iranian air defenses in order to conduct such a strike. The air force will also have to prepare for an expected retaliation against Israel by Iran and its allies throughout the region.

The drill has also focused on preparing for and responding to such retaliation.

According to Channel 13 news, the US Air Force was supposed to serve as a complementary force with refueling planes during the drill. The IDF did not confirm the report, and the US Central Command denied it, saying “there is no direct US military involvement in that exercise.” A Pentagon spokesperson also denied the Department of Defense was “directly participating” in the drills, according to The War Zone online magazine.

The Chariots of Fire drill — scheduled to last through June 3 — is the military’s largest exercise in decades.

Military officials said it is aimed at raising the competence and readiness of troops and top brass for war on multiple fronts, as well as coordination with other emergency organizations, local authorities, and government ministries.

ToI Staff Contributed to this report

 May 30, 2022 @ 18:05 Five Israelis targeted, Iran revenge attack threatened, Israel on high air defense alert

Israel’s unusual official announcement on May 30 of its heightened air defense alert was triggered by intelligence affirming Iran’s determination to make good this time on a vow of revenge for the shooting of Col. Hassan Kodaei on May 23.  It was reinforced on Monday afternoon, when Iranian media named five Israel intelligence and tech experts who with their families and colleagues are now in Iran’s sights:

1. Maj. Gen. (Res) Amos Malka, Military Intelligence (AMAN) Chief from 1998 to 2001 is accused of business deals in the last 20 years involving security high-tech firms.
2. Amir Levinthal, founder and CEO of the Cylus cyber company that secures rail systems. According to the Fars news agency, Levinthal is a former member of AMAN.
3. Gal Ganot, graduate of the IDF’s high tech 8200 Unit and director of a company that does work for the Mossad.
4. Inbar Arieli, founder of that Synthesis high-tech company. She is rated one of the 100 most influential members of the “Zionist Entity’s new tech elite.” She too served in the 8200 Unit.
5. Amit Meltzer, described as an expert in cyber defense who is the architect of those systems in the use of Israel, the US and Singapore

The Kodeai hit was cited on Monday by Revolutionary Guards commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami when he pledged to avenge his death during a visit to the victim’s parents. However, a subsequent attack two days later – this one on the Parchin military complex, that was attributed by American sources to Israel – was the tipping point for Tehran. Helicopters packed with explosives struck a plant producing UAVs. Most galling of all for the Islamic Republic was that both attacks were inside jobs carried out from within its borders.

Col. Kodaei was head of the IRGC’s clandestine Qods Force’s Unit 840, which is charged with acts of terror against Israeli targets. He was not the first high-profile Iranian whose assassination was attributed to Israel. But in previous cases, including the mastermind of Iran’s nuclear program, Mohsen Farizadeh, in November 2020, Israel maintained silence on its security preparations.

This time is different in that Iran’s threats – including and a real threat to Israelis visiting Turkey – are being taken with extreme seriousness on three scores:

• On Saturday, Iran opened up a secret underground depot housing some 100 advanced unmanned aerial vehicles (see photo) to demonstrate its capacity to settle accounts with Israel on a large scale. It will be hard to back down on vows of revenge after this display.
• This and other intelligence strongly indicate that Iran will not be content with a small operation but is rather bent on inflicting heavy damage.
• Security sources infer this additionally from the restraint displayed by the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the face of Israel’s Flag Parade on Jerusalem Day despite threats of rocket fire and other payback. Both were apparently directed from Tehran to hold their fire and wait to join the multi-front assault coming to Israel.

Tehran has amassed more than 3,800 kilos of material, IAEA reports, after detecting radioactivity at potential undeclared nuclear sites

By AGENCIES and TOI STAFF30 May 2022, 7:48 pmUpdated at 8:43 pm  

Various centrifuge machines line a hall at the Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility, on April 17, 2021. (Screenshot, Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting-IRIB, via AP)

The UN nuclear watchdog said Monday that it estimated Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium had grown to more than 18 times the limit laid down in Tehran’s 2015 deal with world powers.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in its latest report on Iran’s nuclear program that it “estimated that, as of May 15, 2022, Iran’s total enriched stockpile was 3,809.3 kilograms.”

The limit in the 2015 deal was set at 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of a specific compound, the equivalent of 202.8 kilograms of uranium. The report also said that Iran is continuing its enrichment of uranium to levels higher than the 3.67 percent limit in the deal.

The stockpile of uranium enriched up to 20% is now estimated to be 238.4 kilograms, up 56.3 kilograms since the last report in March, while the amount enriched to 60% stands at 43.1 kilograms, an increase of 9.9 kilograms.

Enrichment levels of around 90% are required for use in a nuclear weapon.

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Earlier in May, the IAEA announced that it was “extremely concerned” by Iranian silence on potential undeclared nuclear sites.

Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Rafael Mariano Grossi shows the inner of a case of an IAEA monitoring device during a press conference in Vienna, Austria, December 17, 2021. (AP/ Michael Gruber)

“I am referring to the fact that we, in the last few months, were able to identify traces of enriched uranium in places that had never been declared by Iran as places where any activity was taking place,” IAEA head Rafael Grossi told a European Parliament Committee.

“The situation does not look very good. Iran, for the time being, has not been forthcoming in the kind of information we need from them… We are extremely concerned about this,” Grossi said.

Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful. Israel views a nuclear-threshold Iran as an unacceptable threat, as Tehran is avowedly committed to the destruction of the Jewish state.

Both American and Israeli officials have assessed that Iran now needs only a few weeks to amass enough fissile material for a bomb, should it choose to make one, though it would need additional time to assemble the device’s other components.

“[Iran] stands just a few weeks away from accumulating fissile material that will be sufficient for a first bomb, holds 60 kilograms of enriched material at 60%, produces metallic uranium at the enrichment level of 20%, and prevents the IAEA from accessing its facilities,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on May 17.

Officials in the current US administration, led by President Joe Biden, blame the drop in Iran’s breakout time on former president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear agreement in 2018.

“Their breakout period is down from about a year, which is what we knew it was during the deal, to just a few weeks or less,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a press conference in February.

The latest report comes as talks to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers remain deadlocked after stalling in March

Raisi says there’s ‘no doubt the hand of global arrogance can be seen in this crime,’ employing a term often used to refer to Israel and the US

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIESToday, 10:19 am  

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi addresses the parliament in Tehran, on November 16, 2021. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

Iran will avenge the killing of a Revolutionary Guards colonel in Tehran, President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Monday.

Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari was shot dead Sunday outside his home by assailants on motorcycles, in a killing Iran blamed on “elements linked to the global arrogance,” its term for the United States and its allies including Israel.

It was the most high-profile killing inside Iran since the November 2020 murder of top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

“I insist on the serious pursuit (of the killers) by security officials, and I have no doubt that the blood of this great martyr will be avenged,” Raisi said. “There is no doubt that the hand of global arrogance can be seen in this crime,” he added, echoing what the Guards said the previous day.

Khodayari’s funeral was due to take place in Tehran at 5 p.m. local time (1230 GMT).

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According to unsourced reports in Hebrew media, Khodayari had planned kidnappings and other attempts to attack Israeli and Jewish targets worldwide.

Col. Hassan Sayad Khodayari. (screenshot)

Khodayari was shot five times by two unidentified gunmen in his car in the middle of Tehran, according to Iranian state media.

Reports identified him as a “defender of the sanctuary,” a reference to Iranians who carry out Tehran’s operations in Syria and Iraq within the Guard’s elite Quds Force that oversees operations abroad.

Although the Guard gave only scant detail about the attack that occurred in broad daylight in the heart of Iran’s capital, the group blamed the killing on “global arrogance,” typically code for the United States and Israel.

An Iranian official quoted by Qatar-based Al-Jazeera warned that the assassination constitutes “a crossing of the red line,” and that those responsible “will pay a heavy price.”

That accusation, as well as the style of the brazen attack, raised the possibility of a link with other motorbike slayings previously attributed to Israel in Iran, such as those targeting the country’s nuclear scientists.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Asked about the incident by Channel 12 news, Defense Minister Benny Gantz refused to comment. Approached by Israel’s Channel 12 news as he participated in New York City’s Celebrate Israel Parade, Gantz said, “the State of Israel is very strong. I’m not addressing all the various reports that appear in all sorts of places.”

The body of a senior member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard identified as Sayad Khodayari, who was assassinated in Tehran on May 22, 2022. (Twitter)

Little information was publicly available about Khodayari, as Quds officers tend to be shadowy figures carrying out secretive military missions supporting Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group, and other militias in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.

But according to Channel 13 news, one of the operatives under Khodayari’s direction was Mansour Rasouli.

In April, it was reported that Rasouli, said to be a member of the IRGC, admitted to Mossad agents, during an interrogation at his home in Iran, that he was sent to target an Israeli diplomat in Turkey, as well as an American general stationed in Germany, and a journalist in France.

Channel 12 reported that Khodayari was also behind an attempt — recently uncovered by the Shin Bet — by Iranian operatives to lure Israeli academics, businesspeople, and former defense officials abroad and possibly kidnap them.

That report also said he was behind an alleged plot to kill five Israelis in Cyprus.

Channel 12 also said that Khodayari had recently returned from Syria, where he served under the former commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, celebrated Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, who himself was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq in January 2020.

Mansour Rasouli, 52, an alleged IRGC member who was reportedly interrogated by Mossad agents in Iran. (Screenshot: Twitter; used in accordance with clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

An Iranian security source was quoted as saying he also played an “important” role in Iran’s military industry, “especially when it came to drones.”

The IRGC was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 2018 by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, after it withdrew from the nuclear agreement officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The elite military unit has been discussed extensively in recent months after Tehran demanded that the group be removed from a US terror blacklist as a condition for returning to compliance with the 2015 multilateral nuclear agreement.

Israel has urged the US to reject Tehran’s demand, saying the group is “a terrorist organization that has murdered thousands of people, including Americans.”

Less than a year after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in a sophisticated hit, reportedly led by a Mossad team.

The long-running shadow war between Israel and Iran has been bursting into the open in recent months, with more direct attacks attributed to Israel against Iranian targets in Syria and mutual cyberattacks carried out by both nations, threatening to bring the regional rivals to the brink of direct warfare.

Collaboration involving Israeli fighter jets and American refuelers seen as message to Iran regarding potential for US assistance in an actual Israeli attack

By TOI STAFF and EMANUEL FABIAN17 May 2022, 10:41 pm  

Illustrative: Israel Air Force F-16 fighter jets and a refueling plane fly in formation over Nevada during the United States Air Force’s Red Flag exercise in August 2016. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

The United States will participate in Israel’s largescale drill simulating a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities as part of the broader Chariots of Fire exercise later this month, Channel 13 reported on Tuesday evening.

According to the unsourced report, the US Air Force will serve as a complementary force, with refueling planes drilling with Israeli fighter jets as they simulate entering Iranian territory and carrying out repeated strikes.

The unprecedented Israel- US aerial collaboration in a drill simulating a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities is seen as a potential message to Iran amid long-stalled negotiations in Vienna over a return to the 2015 nuclear deal, a possibility Israel has repeatedly voiced its objection to, warning it would lead to “a more violent, more volatile Middle East.”

Large numbers of Israeli fighter jets –dozens, according to Kan TV news — will take part in the simulated attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The TV report noted that when Israel conducted a major drill for such an attack some 10 years ago, when it was widely reported to be on the point of striking Iran, the US did not participate.

The Israeli military has taken steps throughout the past year to prepare a credible military threat against Tehran’s nuclear facilities. The US, in turn, has expressed reluctance to prepare for a military confrontation with Iran but nonetheless said it would explore other options if talks in Vienna fail.

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Channel 13 defense reporter Or Heller noted that by including the US in the drill, the two countries are sending a message to Iran that the US could support an Israeli offensive, even if its fighter jets do not actively participate.

Lt. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla testifies before the Senate Armed Services committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 8, 2022, to be general and commander of the US Central Command. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz is slated to meet with his American counterpart, Lloyd Austin, on Thursday at the Pentagon in Washington. Meanwhile, Michael Kurilla, head of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), who oversees US-Israel military cooperation, arrived in Israel on Tuesday for his first official visit.

At the beginning of last year, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi announced he had instructed the military to begin drawing up fresh attack plans against Iran. By September, Kohavi said the army had “greatly accelerated” preparations for action against Tehran’s nuclear program.

In addition to having to find ways to strike Iranian facilities that are buried deep underground, requiring specialized munitions and tactics, the IAF will have to deal with increasingly sophisticated Iranian air defenses in order to conduct such a strike. The air force will also have to prepare for an expected retaliation against Israel by Iran and its allies throughout the region.

The upcoming drill is also expected to focus on preparing for and responding to such retaliation.

A cleric walks past Zolfaghar, top, and Dezful missiles displayed by the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, at Imam Khomeini grand mosque, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

On Tuesday, Gantz warned that “the price for tackling the Iranian challenge on a global or regional level is higher than it was a year ago and lower than it will be in a year.”

Gantz said Iran was just a “few weeks” away from accumulating sufficient fissile material for a bomb and was also working to finish the production and installation of 1,000 advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium, including at a new underground site at the Natanz nuclear facility.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks during a conference at Herzliya’s Reichman University, May 17, 2022. (Gilad Kvalarchik/Gilad Kvalarchik)

Also on Tuesday, Iran said it inaugurated a production line for manufacturing a new military drone, dubbed the Ababil-2, in Tajikistan.

The aerial drill comes amid a massive military exercise — dubbed “Chariots of Fire” — which involves nearly all units of the IDF, and has been focusing on training for fighting on Israel’s northern borders, including against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon.

 May 16, 2022 @ 16:40 Iran sends Hizballah cruise missiles

Iran has furnished the Lebanese Hizballah terrorist group with a selection of cruise missiles, including the Kh-55, which is potentially capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. This weapon has a range of 3,000km. This report came from Western intelligence sources on Monday, May 16, when the Israel Navy joined the Israel military’s large-scale “Chariots of Fire” exercise.

The Kh-55 was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s as an air-launched cruise missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. The Iranian conversion can be launched from land or from a naval vessel.

While building up a stock of precision-guided surface missiles, Iran’s Lebanese proxy has also, with the help of Iran and Syria, been quietly accumulating a pile of marine cruise missiles, capable of posting a major threat to the Israeli Navy. Its purpose is to clamp a sea blockade on Israel in a war. Even a partial blockade would seriously disrupt israel’s ability to conduct wartime operations and interfere with its military and civilian supply routes.

The sea-launched missiles now in the hands of Hizballah are listed by Western intelligence as: the C-802, the Iranian version of the Chinese subsonic cruise missile, which has a range of 200km; the Russian Yakhont subsonic cruise missile which has a range of 300km and was passed to the Lebanese group by Syria – with Moscow’s consent; Nor – 200km range; Gadar-110, an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 2,000km; and Ghadir, an anti-ship cruise missile which has a range of 300km.     

Defense minister warns cost of dealing with Iran will be higher in a year; warns Tehran against transfer of advanced weapons to proxies; says Israel’s position on Ukraine ‘ethical’

By EMANUEL FABIAN Today, 11:06 am  

In this June 6, 2018, frame grab from Islamic Republic Iran Broadcasting, IRIB, state-run TV, three versions of domestically built centrifuges are shown in a live TV program from Natanz, an Iranian uranium enrichment plant, in Iran. (IRIB via AP)

Defense Minister Benny Gantz claimed on Tuesday that Iran was working to finish the production and installation of 1,000 advanced centrifuges enriching uranium, including at a new underground site at the Natanz nuclear facility.

“Iran continues to accumulate irreversible knowledge and experience in the development, research, production, and operation of advanced centrifuges. It stands just a few weeks away from obtaining fissile material needed for a first bomb,” Gantz said during an Institute for National Security Studies conference at Herzliya’s Reichman University.

“During these very days, Iran is making an effort to complete the production and installation of 1,000 advanced IR6 centrifuges at its nuclear facilities, including a new facility being built at an underground site near Natanz,” he said.

Last month the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency confirmed that Iran had set up a new centrifuge parts workshop at its Natanz nuclear facility.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said the machines were moved from Karaj, near Tehran, to the new location, which he said was some three floors belowground, possibly to protect it from airstrikes.

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The workshop had been set up in one of the halls of Natanz’s fuel enrichment plant, where Iran has thousands of centrifuges, Grossi said.

Natanz, in Iran’s central Isfahan province, hosts the country’s main uranium enrichment facility. (AP)

Iran’s centrifuge facility in Karaj was targeted in what Iran described as a sabotage attack in June. Natanz itself has twice been targeted in sabotage attacks, assaults that Iran has blamed on Israel.

Talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled. There is concern that Iran could be closer to being able to construct an atomic weapon if it chose to pursue one.

The nuclear deal collapsed four years ago when former US president Donald Trump withdrew the United States and imposed crushing sanctions on Iran. In the meantime, Iran has vastly expanded its nuclear work, while insisting that it is for peaceful purposes.

“The price for tackling the Iranian challenge on a global or regional level is higher than it was a year ago and lower than it will be in a year,” Gantz said.

The defense minister also said two Iranian drones downed over Iraq in February were intended to reach terror groups in the Gaza Strip or West Bank.

“The [Islamic] Revolutionary Guard [Corps] launched a pair of drones from Iran itself, towards Israel. Among other things, based on the fact that the UAVs had parachutes attached, we estimate that the purpose of the launch was to parachute them into the Gaza Strip or Judea and Samaria and for them to be collected by terrorist organizations,” he said.

An Iranian Shahed-136 drone is launched during a military exercise in Iran, December 2021. (Screenshot: Twitter)

The Israel Defense Forces has confirmed it intercepted at least four other Iranian drones heading for Israel or the West Bank and Gaza Strip in recent years.

The defense minister warned that Iran’s attempts to transfer “accurate munitions” to its proxies, including via Syria, were continuing. “Israel will continue to halt these efforts and prevent the threat to its citizens and the region,” he said, days after an airstrike in the northwestern Masyaf area of Syria was attributed to Israel.

“The quantity of this strategic weapon in the hands of Iranian emissaries has increased significantly in the past year,” Gantz said. “In Iraq, there are hundreds of [munitions]; many dozens have been added this year. In Yemen, the number of [munitions] has increased in the past year, and the Houthis hold dozens of them.”

Defense Minister Benny Gantz speaks during at an Institute for National Security Studies conference at Herzliya’s Reichman University, May 17, 2022. (Gilad Kvalarchik)

Speaking on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Gantz said Israel was in the right place “ethically and strategically,” adding that he supports transferring additional defensive equipment to Ukraine.

Israel has avoided aligning too closely with either side since Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24. It is one of the few countries that maintains relatively warm relations with both Ukraine, a fellow Western democracy, and Russia. However, the rhetoric coming from Jerusalem shifted in the wake of the reports of widespread civilian killings by the Russians and comments by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claiming that Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood.”

While Jerusalem has increasingly shifted its tone to align more with Western powers, it has so far steadfastly declined to contribute to the Ukrainian military effort, instead sending humanitarian aid and defensive equipment to be used by emergency services.

Gantz said supporting Ukraine must not come at the cost of Israel’s “broad operational considerations, which are also an anchor for regional stability.”

Israeli strikes have continued in Syrian airspace, which is largely controlled by Russia, even as ties with Moscow have deteriorated in recent weeks. Israel has found itself at odds with Russia as it has increasingly supported Ukraine, while seeking to maintain freedom of movement in Syria’s skies.

Agencies contributed to this report.

As Israeli, US national security advisers meet in Washington amid stalled Vienna negotiations, Tehran calls for return to talks and blames US

By TOI STAFF and AFP26 April 2022, 9:28 am  

International Atomic Energy Organization director general Rafael Mariano Grossi, right, speaks with with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, left, during their meeting in Tehran, on March 5, 2022. (AP)

With Israel’s national security adviser in Washington to meet his counterpart, Israeli officials have reportedly said the chances of world powers signing a new nuclear deal with Iran are greatly diminished.

According to reports in the Israel Hayom newspaper and the Kan public broadcaster on Tuesday, US administration officials are closer than ever to admitting defeat on US President Joe Biden’s stated goal to return to the 2015 deal.

Talks in Vienna between Iran and world powers have been stalled for six weeks, reportedly over Iran’s demand that Washington delist its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from a US terror list.

“The possibility that the parties will sign an agreement in the foreseeable future is dwindling at an exponential rate,” an official told Israel Hayom. A source cited by Kan suggested that the White House “is much more willing these days, then it was in the past” to admit the talks are likely to fail.

According to an Axios report on Monday, the Biden administration “has recently started discussing a scenario” in which the deal won’t be revived.

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Last week, a senior Israeli diplomatic official claimed that Biden administration officials notified their European counterparts that Washington does not plan on delisting Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

National Security Council chairman Eyal Hulata (L) and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in front of the White House, on October 5, 2021. (Jake Sullivan/Twitter)

National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata met with his US counterpart Jake Sullivan on Monday in Washington, a day after Biden told Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that he would visit Israel in the coming months.

According to the US readout of the meeting, Sullivan told Hulata that “the United States is attuned to Israel’s concerns about threats to its security, including first and foremost from Iran and Iranian-backed proxies.”

During his conversation with Biden on Sunday, Bennett said that “I am sure that President Biden, who is a true friend of Israel and cares about its security, will not remove the Revolutionary Guards from the [State Department’s] list of [Foreign] Terrorist Organizations,” per the Israeli readout.

On Monday, Iran called for a new meeting “as soon as possible” in the Vienna negotiations it has been holding with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly, and the United States indirectly.

“It is appropriate that a face-to-face meeting is held as soon as possible,” Iran foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told his weekly press conference. “It is not yet decided where and when to have this meeting and at what level it should be held, but it is on the agenda.”

The 2015 deal gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs meant to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon, something it has always denied wanting to do.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh speaks to the media during a press conference in Tehran, on April 25, 2022. (Atta Kenare/AFP)

The United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-US president Donald Trump and reimposed biting economic sanctions, prompting Iran to begin rolling back its own commitments.

Iran and the US, adversaries for decades, have been exchanging views through the European coordinator of the Vienna talks, Enrique Mora.

Khatibzadeh said Iran and the European Union agreed that “prolonging the pause in the negotiations is not in anyone’s interest.” He added that the talks “have not stopped and are continuing through the coordinator of the Vienna negotiations.”

The Vienna talks, which started a year ago, aim to return the US to the nuclear deal, including through the lifting of sanctions on Iran, and to ensure Tehran’s full compliance with its commitments.

“It is clear that if the US had given the right answers to the remaining issues… everyone would have been in Vienna by now,” said Khatibzadeh.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price said last week that “if Iran wants sanctions-lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they’ll need to address concerns of ours that go beyond the JCPOA.”

‘Israel can do and take whatever actions they need to take,’ ambassador to Jerusalem tells Channel 12; Blinken reportedly asks Bennett for Iran deal ‘alternative’

By TOI STAFF31 March 2022, 11:35 pm  

US Ambassador Tom Nides is interviewed by The Times of Israel at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, on January 7, 2022. (David Azagury/US Embassy)

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides said on Thursday Israel won’t be faced with any American restrictions if it wishes to act against Iran, whether or not a nuclear deal is signed between Tehran and world powers.

Asked in a Channel 12 interview if the US expects Israel to “sit quietly and not do anything” if a deal is signed, Nides replied: “Absolutely not. We’ve been very clear about this. If we have a deal, the Israelis’ hands are not tied. If we don’t have a deal, the Israelis’ hands are certainly not tied.”

“Israel can do and take whatever actions they need to take to protect the state of Israel,” he added.

“The president,” he stressed, “will do whatever he can do to make sure that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon… It’s clear we’d like to do it through a diplomatic channel.”

Regarding the progress of the negotiations on a deal, he said: “The Israelis know very clearly exactly what is going on. I’m not suggesting they necessarily like it always, but there are no secrets here.”

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In this September 21, 2016, file photo, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard troops march in a military parade in Tehran, Iran. ​(AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

Nides dodged a direct question on whether Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will be delisted from the US list of terror groups as part of a revived deal, as he also did in a Channel 13 interview.

Tehran has said that taking the IRGC off a US terror list is a condition for restoring the 2015 agreement.

Israeli officials have openly expressed their concerns over this possibility, including during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel earlier this week for the Negev Summit.

During a press conference on Sunday with the American top diplomat, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett referred to Houthi attacks in Saudi Arabia last week, which he called “horrific,” adding that he was concerned over the possible removal of the IRGC from the US Foreign Terrorist Organizations list as part of a revived nuclear deal with Tehran.

“I hope the US will hear concerned voices in the region, from Israel and others, on this issue,” he said.

Bennett also protested the notion of the IRGC being delisted during a cabinet meeting earlier Sunday.

“We are still hoping and working toward preventing this from happening,” he said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (right) with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, on March 27, 2021. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)

Blinken said during the press conference that “there is no daylight” between the US and Israel on the efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, as well as countering its threats to the region.

He added that the US will maintain that stance regardless of whether a new Iran nuclear deal is reached.

“Deal or no deal, we will continue to work together and with other partners to counter Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the region,” he said.

Blinken asked Bennett during their meeting on Sunday for his alternative to a nuclear deal with Iran, according to a report Thursday by the Axios news site, citing a senior State Department official and an Israeli official.

According to the report, Blinken asked Bennett how he would stop Iran from being capable of obtaining a nuclear weapon, when at its current enrichment pace, it would be able to do so within weeks.

Israeli officials said Bennett told him Iran can be deterred from enriching uranium to weapons-grade, if it knows Western nations will ramp up sanctions to the level they’ve been imposed on Russia, the report said.

The Israeli official also reportedly said that Bennett described a revived Iran deal as “a Band-Aid” solution for a few years that would allow Iran to expand its support for its regional terror proxies.

“It is us here in the region that will have to deal with that afterward,” Bennett told Blinken, according to a senior Israeli official.

Iran’s Governor to the International Atomic Energy Agency Kazem Gharib Abadi, Political deputy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran Abbas Araghchi, and Deputy Secretary-General and Political Director of the European External Action Service Enrique Mora stand in front of the ‘Grand Hotel Vienna’ where closed-door nuclear talks take place in Vienna, Austria, on June 2, 2021. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner)

The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action gave Iran relief from heavy sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program to prevent it from obtaining atomic weapons, a goal Tehran denies it seeks. In 2018, the Trump administration pulled the US out of the deal and reimposed sanctions. Iran has responded by dropping many of its commitments and ramping up enrichment and other elements of the program.

European-sponsored talks in Vienna are aiming to bring the US back into the deal and see Iran recommit to its terms in return for lifted sanctions.

‘Nobody like violence’

Asked by Channel 12 about Israel’s efforts to tackle terrorism amid a wave of attacks, Ambassador Nides said: “We’re not going to tell the government what to do.”

Regarding Blinken’s highlighting of settler violence and settlement expansion during his recent visit, as opposed to Palestinian terrorism, Nides said: “No one likes violence. Period. It doesn’t matter if it’s settler violence [or], you know, Palestinian violence.”

Nides said he made clear, in his own confirmation testimony, that the Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists and their families must be halted: “Martyr payments… must stop,” he said.

He stressed US support for the two-state solution, noting: “We can’t lose the vision… [though] we can’t impose anything on anyone.”

Nides also said the US was “very comfortable with what the Israelis are doing vis-à-vis Ukraine,” despite complaints out of Washington that Israel had failed to adopt anti-Russia sanctions or send equipment to Ukraine’s army.

A soldier walks amid the destruction caused after the shelling of a shopping center in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

“When we have issues, we express them, as Israel expresses them to us… I am very comfortable today on the relationship, with what they’re doing with Ukraine,” Nides said.

Israel has long maintained good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, and has been seeking to use its unique position to broker an agreement between the two sides, as it tries to walk a tightrope maintaining its ties to both countries.

Ukraine has repeatedly pushed Israel for more support since Russia launched its invasion. But Israel has been seeking to avoid antagonizing Russia, which has a strong presence in Syria, where Israel carries out military action against Iran-linked groups.

Both countries determined ‘that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon,’ US secretary of state says in Jerusalem; Lapid emphasizes shared ‘vision of peace through strength’

By LAZAR BERMAN Today, 1:35 pm  

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (L) at a press conference in Jerusalem, March 27, 2022 (Foreign Ministry)

The US and Israel are committed to ensuring that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a Sunday press conference in Jerusalem, as the allies acknowledged differences over negotiations with Tehran.

“When it comes to the most important element, we see eye to eye. We are both committed, both determined, that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon,” Blinken told reporters in Jerusalem alongside Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid.

At the same time, he said that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was the best way “to put Iran’s nuclear program back in the box it was in,” as Lapid reiterated Israel’s “disagreements” with Washington over negotiations to revive the 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran.

Israel has firmly opposed the terms of the 2015 deal and has said that reactivating the original deal is insufficient to curb the Iranian threat.

Lapid noted that military and diplomatic strength “guarantees peace,” emphasizing that the US and Israel shared “a vision of peace through strength.”

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He added that “Israel will do anything we believe is needed to stop the Iranian nuclear program. Anything. From our point of view, the Iranian threat is not theoretical. The Iranians want to destroy Israel. They will not succeed. We will not let them.”

“The world cannot afford a nuclear Iran,” Lapid said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) walks by the side of Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, following a joint press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, on March 27, 2022. (Jacquelyn Martin / POOL / AFP)

Blinken also condemned Iran-backed Houthi attacks on Saudi and Emirati civilians and infrastructure.

“Beyond its nuclear efforts, Iran continues to engage in a whole series of destabilizing activities,” Blinken said.

“The US will continue to stand up to Iran when it threatens us or when it threatens our allies and partners,” he said, noting the US was “fully committed to expanding cooperation through the Abraham Accords,” ahead of Sunday’s Negev Summit with foreign ministers from four Arab countries.

Forces loyal to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis take part in a mass funeral for fighters killed in battles with Saudi-backed government troops, in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, on April 8, 2021. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)

He thanked Lapid for his leadership in finding new opportunities for the Abraham Accords and noted Israel’s efforts to mediate in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“We greatly appreciate Israel’s strong repudiation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” he said, adding that he appreciates Israel’s stated determination not to be used as a sanctions bypass.

Blinken was briefed by Israel’s senior expert on the issue before the press conference.

The top US envoy also praised Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s mediation efforts in the conflict, and Israel’s Shining Star field hospital in Mostyska, western Ukraine.

A Ukrainian flag hangs at a schoolhouse that has been converted into a field hospital, in Mostyska, western Ukraine, March 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

He said the people of Israel were standing with Ukraine, citing protests in Tel Aviv and the work of the United Hatzalah emergency service.

Blinken said he will discuss the effects of the Ukraine conflict in the region with regional partners at the upcoming Negev Summit. “Normalization [of Arab countries with Israel] is becoming the new normal,” he said.

He noted the US funding of Iron Dome system, and condemned last week’s stabbing attack in Beersheba.

Blinken added he will reiterate to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas the Biden administration’s commitment to strengthening ties with the PA.

Demonstrators gather at Habima Square in Tel Aviv on March 20, 2022, to watch a televised video address by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Jack Guez/ AFP)

Earlier Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel was enjoying a period of good foreign relations.

“To anyone who has not noticed – Israel’s foreign policy is in a good period,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “Israel is an important actor on the world and regional stage. We are cultivating old ties and building new bridges.”

He said “the old peace” — with Egypt — is meeting “the new peace” of the Abraham Accords.

Also on Sunday, US special envoy Robert Malley said the United States will maintain sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards even if there is a deal to limit the country’s nuclear program.

“The IRGC will remain sanctioned under US law and our perception of the IRGC will remain,” Malley told a conference in Doha, despite Iran’s demands that the Corps be taken off a US terrorist list as a condition for a revived nuclear accord.

US Special Representative for Iran, Robert Malley, participates in a panel at the Doha Forum in Qatar’s capital on March 27, 2022. (MARWAN TAHTAH / MOFA / DOHA FORUM)

“We’re pretty close,” Malley said of the negotiations, but added: “We’ve been pretty close now for some time. And I think that tells you all you need to know about the difficulty of the issues.”

Bennett and Lapid had previously said: “The attempt to delist the IRGC as a terrorist organization is an insult to the victims and would ignore documented reality supported by unequivocal evidence.”

Over the weekend, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said that a deal with Iran will likely be renewed “in a matter of days.”

Times of Israel staff and Agencies contributed to this report