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)
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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.



Russia’s Putin Apologizes to Azerbaijan over ‘Tragic’ Airliner Crash

 In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Russia’s Putin Apologizes to Azerbaijan over ‘Tragic’ Airliner Crash

 In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on December 28, 2024. (AFP)

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan's leader for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over Russia in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defenses were fired against Ukrainian drones.

The extremely rare publicized apology from Putin was the closest Moscow had come to accepting some blame for Wednesday's disaster, although the Kremlin statement did not say Russia had shot down the plane, only noting that a criminal case had been opened.

Flight J2-8243, en route from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny, crash-landed on Wednesday near Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia, where Ukrainian drones were reported to be attacking several cities. At least 38 people were killed.

Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot the airliner down. Passengers said they heard a loud bang outside the plane.

Putin called President Ilham Aliyev and "apologized for the tragic incident that occurred in Russian airspace and once again expressed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wished a speedy recovery to the injured," the Kremlin said.

"At that time, Grozny, Mozdok and Vladikavkaz were being attacked by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, and Russian air defense systems repelled these attacks."

The Kremlin said "civilian and military specialists" were being questioned.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy also said he had called Aliyev to offer condolences, and in his statement on the X platform demanded that Russia provide "clear explanations".

OBJECTS SMASHED THROUGH AIRPLANE'S FUSELAGE

Azerbaijan for its part said Aliyev had noted to Putin that the plane had been "subjected to external physical and technical interference in Russian airspace, resulting in a complete loss of control and redirection to the Kazakh city of Aktau".

Until Saturday, Russia's last working day before a long New Year holiday, the Kremlin had said it was improper to comment on the incident before official investigations were concluded.

The Embraer jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, where the incident occurred, and then travelled, badly damaged, another 280 miles (450 km) across the Caspian Sea.

Footage shot by passengers before the plane crashed showed oxygen masks down and people wearing life jackets. Later videos showed bloodied and bruised passengers climbing out of the wreckage. There were 29 survivors.

Baku cited injuries from objects that had penetrated the aircraft’s fuselage from outside and testimonies from survivors as evidence of "external physical and technical interference".

The crash underscored the risks to civil aviation even when aircraft are flying hundreds of miles from a war zone, especially when Ukraine has deployed drones en masse to try to hit back at Russia behind the front lines .

Russia uses electronic jamming to confuse the geolocation and communication systems of Ukrainian drones, which it also targets with air defense systems.

In 2020, Iranian Revolutionary Guards mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 on board.

And in 2014, Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, with the loss of 298 passengers and crew, by what Dutch investigators said was a Russian BUK missile system. Russia denied involvement.