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.



Azerbaijan Pays Tribute to Pilots, Passengers who Perished in Air Crash

People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
TT

Azerbaijan Pays Tribute to Pilots, Passengers who Perished in Air Crash

People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov
People carry a coffin with the body of a victim of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer passenger plane crash near the Kazakh city of Aktau, upon the arrival at an airport in Baku, Azerbaijan, December 28, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Karimov

Azerbaijan on Sunday paid tribute to the pilots and passengers of the Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan killing 38 people after Russian air defenses were used against Ukrainian drones.

Flight J2-8243 crashed on Wednesday in a ball of fire near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from southern Russia where Ukrainian drones were attacking several cities.

Captain Igor Kshnyakin and co-pilot Alexander Kalyaninov, both ethnic Russians with Azerbaijan citizenship, and Hokuma Aliyeva, a flight attendant, were given full honors at a ceremony at the Alley of Honor in central Baku attended by President Ilham Aliyev and his wife, Mehriban.

The pilots have been lauded in Azerbaijan for landing in a way which allowed 29 people to survive but led to their own deaths.

Azerbaijan's presidential office said that after the yet-to-be explained incident over Russian airspace, the pilots battled to control the plane - desperately trying to find a landing spot, Reuters reported.

With holes in the fuselage, some crew injured, passengers praying for their lives in a de-pressurized cabin and the plane spiraling out of control, the pilots flew across the Caspian Sea towards their death in an crash landing.
"Only through the courage and professionalism of the pilots was an emergency landing successfully carried out," Azerbaijan's presidential office said.
The Alley of Honor is Azerbaijan's most sacred modern burial ground - where prominent politicians, poets and scientists are laid to rest, including Heydar Aliyev, the late father of the current president.
Captain Kshnyakin's daughter, Anastasia Kshnyakina, said her father was a dedicated pilot who took his responsibilities to his passengers extremely seriously.
"My father always said: when I take off, I am responsible not only for my life, but also for the lives of all passengers and crew members," Kshnyakina said.
"With his last flight, he proved what a true hero should be."
Russia's Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to Azerbaijan's president for a "tragic incident" in Russian airspace involving the plane which Baku said crashed after some sort of external interference.
Four sources with knowledge of the preliminary findings of Azerbaijan's investigation into the disaster told Reuters on Thursday that Russian air defenses had mistakenly shot it down.
The extremely rare publicized apology from Putin was the closest Moscow has 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.
The Embraer passenger jet had flown from Azerbaijan's capital Baku to Grozny, in Russia's southern Chechnya region, before veering off hundreds of miles across the Caspian Sea.