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US Appoints Dan Shapiro as State Department Liaison to Israel on Iran

Daniel Shapiro, former US Ambassador to Israel (File photo: Reuters)
Daniel Shapiro, former US Ambassador to Israel (File photo: Reuters)
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US Appoints Dan Shapiro as State Department Liaison to Israel on Iran

Daniel Shapiro, former US Ambassador to Israel (File photo: Reuters)
Daniel Shapiro, former US Ambassador to Israel (File photo: Reuters)

The US has appointed former ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro as the State Department's Iran policy team as a senior adviser to US envoy for Iran Rob Malley.

State Department officials told Walla News that Shapiro is expected to focus on coordinating with Israel on the nuclear issue, and especially on Iranian activity in the region.

Walla said that Israel is concerned about the situation following the suspension of the Vienna talks after the Iranian presidential elections. It is still unclear if the negotiations will resume.

The US and Israel are working on an alternative plan if the diplomatic channels remained suspended, in which case Shapiro will have an important role.

Shapiro was the US ambassador to Tel Aviv for six years during the two terms of President Barack Obama.

After the election of Donald Trump, he did not return to Washington but instead remained in Tel Aviv and worked as a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Research at Tel Aviv University.

Shapiro went through a security clearance process and started working last week as a "part-time senior adviser" to Malley.

Shapiro, who participated in several negotiations on Iran, provided advice to White House officials before a meeting between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, though he did not meet the Israeli delegation.

Shapiro will spend time between Washington and Tel Aviv, where he'll work out of the US embassy.

One of his main missions will be to engage in discussions with the Israeli prime minister's office, the foreign ministry, and the defense ministry to enhance coordination and allow a more intimate dialogue about Iran.

After Biden was elected in 2020, Shapiro wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post saying he supported backing the nuclear deal.

However, he noted that he was aware of the Israeli concerns and believed the two countries should enter into talks to formulate a joint strategy, instead of reaching a confrontation, as was the case in 2015, when former PM Benjamin Netanyahu publicly opposed Obama’s decision on a nuclear agreement.

Walla quoted a US State Department official as saying that Malley had recruited Shapiro as part of his commitment to bring Iran experts with diverse opinions into the negotiations.

Shapiro is considered a hardliner in his stance toward Iran, and he brings to Malley's team the viewpoint of Israel and the Gulf states, according to Walla.

"In light of Shapiro's experience in the region, he will help us think about the regional implications of the negotiations with Iran and will be able to contribute greatly in terms of coordination with Israel. He knows the area. People in the region know him, and he brings a point of view that will contribute to our thinking," said a senior State Department official.

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Global Interest in Israel's Air-Launched Ballistic Missiles

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
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Global Interest in Israel's Air-Launched Ballistic Missiles

This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)
This handout picture released by the Israeli army on October 26, 2024, shows an Israeli fighter jet departing a hangar at an undisclosed location in Israel. (Photo by AFP)

Israel's effective use of air-launched ballistic missiles in its airstrikes against Iran is expected to pique interest elsewhere in acquiring the weapons, which most major powers have avoided in favor of cruise missiles and glide bombs.
The Israeli Army said its Oct. 26 raid knocked out Iranian missile factories and air defenses in three waves of strikes.
Researchers said that based on satellite imagery, targets included buildings once used in Iran's nuclear program, according to Reuters.
Tehran defends such targets with “a huge variety” of anti-aircraft systems, said Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at London's Royal United Services Institute.
Cruise missiles are easier targets for dense, integrated air defenses than ballistic missiles are.
But ballistic missiles are often fired from known launch points, and most cannot change course in flight.
Experts say high-speed, highly accurate air-launched ballistic missiles such as the Israel Aerospace Industries Rampage get around problems facing ground-based ballistic missiles and air-launched cruise missiles - weapons that use small wings to fly great distances and maintain altitude.
“The main advantage of an ALBM over an ALCM is speed to penetrate defenses,” said Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California.
“The downside - accuracy - looks to have been largely solved,” he said.
Ground-launched ballistic missiles - which Iran used to attack Israel twice this year, and which both Ukraine and Russia have used since Russia's invasion in 2022 - are common in the arsenals of many countries. So, too, are cruise missiles.
Because ALBMs are carried by aircraft, their launch points are flexible, helping strike planners.
“The advantage is that being air-launched, they can come from any direction, complicating the task of defending against them,” said Uzi Rubin, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, one of the architects of Israel's missile defenses.
The weapons are not invulnerable to air defenses. In Ukraine, Lockheed Martin Patriot PAC-3 missiles have repeatedly intercepted Russia's Khinzhals.
Many countries, including the United States and Britain, experimented with ALBMs during the Cold War. Only Israel, Russia and China are known to field the weapons now.
The US tested a hypersonic ALBM, the Lockheed Martin AGM-183, but it received no funding for the 2025 fiscal year.
Because it has a large arsenal of cruise missiles and other types of long-range strike weapons, Washington has otherwise shown little interest in ALBMs.
A US Air Force official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ALBMs are not used in Air Force operations.
Raytheon's SM-6, an air-defense missile that has been repurposed for air-to-air and surface-to-surface missions, also has been tested as an air-launched anti-ship weapon, said a senior US defense technical analyst, who declined to be identified because the matter is sensitive.
In tests the missile was able to strike a small target on land representing the center of mass of a destroyer, the analyst said. Publicly, the SM-6 is not meant for air-to-ground strikes.
Because ALBMs are essentially a combination of guidance, warheads and rocket motors, many countries that have precision weapons already have the capability to pursue them, a defense industry executive said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“This is a clever way of taking a common set of technologies and components and turning it into a very interesting new weapon that gives them far more capability, and therefore options, at a reasonable price,” the executive said.