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Israel Still Fears U.S. Approach to Iran

(Al-Monitor) Ben Caspit - U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his Israeli counterpart, Eyal Hulata, and their teams met in the White House on Oct. 5 and discussed Iran. Diplomatic sources say the realization is growing that Israel and the U.S. aren't on the same page and their strategic perceptions of the Iranian nuclear threat differ substantially. A senior Israeli defense official described the situation to Al-Monitor: "The atmosphere was very friendly and open, the messages were conveyed, but in terms of substance, the situation is bad. Perhaps even very bad. Right now, there is no joint operational contingency plan against Iran should efforts to return to the nuclear agreement fail. And even worse, the Americans do not have any solution whatsoever to such a situation. They do not have a Plan B. They do not have alternatives, and what is truly troubling is that they are not really concerned about it." "True, the Americans continue to stress - at our request - that if the diplomatic path fails to yield results, there are other options, but it is not clear whether they mean it. They are not focused on Iran, they are focused on China and domestic U.S. issues....The severity of the situation does not really trouble them; they do not think that American national security is under threat of an Iranian nuclear effort." Israel has been presenting the Americans with massive quantities of fresh intelligence. Israel is one of the world's largest repositories of intelligence information on the Iran nuclear issue, after Iran reportedly cracked and brought down a major U.S. intelligence network operating there. Israel is focused on proving Iran's true intentions of acquiring a military nuclear capability, and illustrating the potential results of its success. "We are simply trying to prove to them that the Iranian saga could end up like the North Korean one," the Israeli official said.
2021-10-11 00:00:00
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