Top Israeli Delegation to Visit Washington to Discuss Nuclear Deal

Mossad chief Yossi Cohen during an event at the home of the US ambassador to Israel (File photo: Getty Images)
Mossad chief Yossi Cohen during an event at the home of the US ambassador to Israel (File photo: Getty Images)
TT

Top Israeli Delegation to Visit Washington to Discuss Nuclear Deal

Mossad chief Yossi Cohen during an event at the home of the US ambassador to Israel (File photo: Getty Images)
Mossad chief Yossi Cohen during an event at the home of the US ambassador to Israel (File photo: Getty Images)

A high-ranking Israeli delegation will head to Washington within the coming weeks to meet with their US counterparts and discuss the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

The delegation will include army chief Aviv Kochavi, head of Mossad Yossi Cohen, and Chief of Staff for National Security Meir Ben Shabbat. They will discuss the dangers of the nuclear deal on Israel, the US, and the allies in the Middle East and Europe, according to informed sources in Tel Aviv.

The delegation will travel later this month for consultations with the US military and security leadership, including White House officials.

They will present evidence that Iran is moving forward in its military nuclear and ballistic missile projects, aiming to dominate the region. They will also display updated images of the latest operations.

Israel wants to convey its message that an agreement with Iran leads to easing the sanctions, encouraging Tehran to boost its powers against US and Western interests in general, and it will harm Israel and Arab allies of Washington.

The visit is evidence of a change in the position of the Israeli security establishment on Iran.

The security services, with all their apparatuses and most of their generals, opposed the position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for more than 12 years, and opposed a war against Iran in 2010 and 2011.

Despite the strong opposition, Cohen agrees with Netanyahu and Kochavi, and announced that he had given instructions to draw up a war plan to destroy the Iranian nuclear project.

Speaking at an event commemorating the Holocaust, Netanyahu warned Israel's allies against signing an agreement allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.

The nuclear deal with Iran is being discussed again, said the prime minister, warning that such agreements are worthless, and they will not force Israel into agreeing to anything.

“Only one thing is necessary for us, which is to prevent anyone seeking to destroy us from implementing their plan.”

Sources in Tel Aviv said that Israel is taking several steps to fail the Iranian projects.

Recently, a number of media outlets reported that Israel has a number of covert operations against Iran similar to the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, stealing of the nuclear archive from Tehran, and the attack against Iranian ships.

Military sources criticized this leak saying such moves are “not beneficial for countries defending their presence.”

However, a number of observers support the leaks saying they are "a message to the enemy", indicating that the recent attack on the Saviz ship in the Red Sea, which was attributed to Israel, was done deliberately at the launch of the Vienna talks discussing the Iranian nuclear program and US sanctions.



North Korean Troops Experience Mass Casualties on Ukraine Front Lines, White House Says

A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
TT

North Korean Troops Experience Mass Casualties on Ukraine Front Lines, White House Says

A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

North Korean forces are experiencing mass casualties on the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine, with a thousand of their troops killed or wounded in the last week alone in the Kursk region of Russia, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday.

The number far exceeds the figure US officials have previously provided.

"It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses," Kirby said, describing the North Korean troops' offensive as "massed, dismounted assaults."

The North Korean and Russian missions to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kirby said President Joe Biden would likely approve another security assistance package for Ukraine in coming days. Earlier this week, Biden condemned Russia's Christmas Day attacks on Ukraine's energy system and some of its cities and asked the Defense Department to continue its surge of weapons to Ukraine.

On Dec. 17, a US military official said North Korea had suffered several hundred casualties while fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region.

Asked about what ranks the North Korean casualties included, the military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was from lower-level troops to "very near to the top."

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded in Russia's Kursk region.