US, Israel Discuss Expanding Cooperation on Iran

Israel’s National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata (L) and his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, meet in October. (Jake Sullivan via Twitter)
Israel’s National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata (L) and his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, meet in October. (Jake Sullivan via Twitter)
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US, Israel Discuss Expanding Cooperation on Iran

Israel’s National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata (L) and his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, meet in October. (Jake Sullivan via Twitter)
Israel’s National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata (L) and his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, meet in October. (Jake Sullivan via Twitter)

Israel’s National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata has announced that talks with his US counterpart, Jake Sullivan, are part of deepening strategic coordination between Tel Aviv and Washington on Iran’s nuclear program.

Hulata stressed that Israel “is trying to expand interest in Iran’s nuclear file so that it includes other issues related to Iranian arms in the region and hegemony schemes.” He also said he would discuss other matters during his trip to Washington, including deepening and expanding the Abraham Accords.

He kicked off his trip on Tuesday.

The top security official had participated in a security briefing with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on the eve of his trip to Washington.

He said that he and Sullivan have almost daily conversations by phone, but “sometimes it is necessary to meet face to face.”

He confirmed that his trip was planned, “but it became more urgent in wake of the phone call between Bennett and US President Joe Biden, two days ago.”

Hulata admitted that there are differences with Washington on several issues, but said that “coordination is deep, important and strategic and we are working on it.”

“Coordination with the US is an essential element that the Prime Minister insisted on from the first moment. It is no secret that Israel and the United States do not agree on the Iranian issue, especially when it comes to the nuclear deal,” said Hulata.

“There is a danger that after returning to the deal and lifting sanctions, the US will lose the tools that would allow it to impose a longer and stronger agreement on Iran,” warned Hulata.



Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
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Taiwan President Will Visit Allies in South Pacific as Rival China Seeks Inroads

FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)
FILE -Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during National Day celebrations in front of the Presidential Building in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te will visit the self-governing island’s allies in the South Pacific, where rival China has been seeking diplomatic inroads.
The Foreign Ministry announced Friday that Lai would travel from Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 to the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau.
The trip comes against the background of Chinese loans, grants and security cooperation treaties with Pacific island nations that have aroused major concern in the US, New Zealand, Australia and others over Beijing's moves to assert military, political and economic control over the region.
Taiwan’s government has yet to confirm whether Lai will make a stop in Hawaii, although such visits are routine and unconfirmed Taiwanese media reports say he will stay for more than one day.
Under pressure from China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and threatens to annex it by force if needed, Taiwan has just 12 formal diplomatic allies. However, it retains strong contacts with dozens of other nations, including the US, its main source of diplomatic and military support.
China has sought to whittle away traditional alliances in the South Pacific, signing a security agreement with the Solomon Islands shortly after it broke ties with Taiwan and winning over Nauru just weeks after Lai's election in January. Since then, China has been pouring money into infrastructure projects in its South Pacific allies, as it has around the world, in exchange for political support.
China objects strongly to such US stopovers by Taiwan's leaders, as well as visits to the island by leading American politicians, terming them as violations of US commitments not to afford diplomatic status to Taiwan after Washington switched formal recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.
With the number of its diplomatic partners declining under Chinese pressure, Taiwan has redoubled efforts to take part in international forums, even from the sidelines. It has also fought to retain what diplomatic status it holds, including refusing a demand from South Africa last month that it move its representative office in its former diplomatic ally out of the capital.