Israel sent a delegation to Washington on Monday (26) while expressing strong opposition to the U.S. actively brokering a renewed nuclear deal with Iran. Still, the White House said that the U.S. position on the Iran nuclear deal would not be changed by Israel’s opposition.
Asked on Friday whether the Israeli delegation’s visit would change the U.S. administration’s position on rejoining the Iran nuclear deal, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “No.”
Psaki added, “Because of the association with Israel, we’ve kept them as a key partner in understanding these discussions – or our intentions. We will continue to do that in any future visits.”
Acknowledging that the talks with Iran are “challenging,” Psaki declared that the United States is “encouraged” that there are still conversations between all parties and that they are ongoing.
A senior official in Jerusalem insisted that Israel wants their voices to be heard, according to The Jerusalem Post, Israel’s largest-circulation English-language newspaper.
“We don’t think (rejoining the Iranian nuclear deal) is an agreement that has been reached,” the official said, adding, “We are going (to Washington) because we are going to try to influence the process.”
The official added: “The instructions to the senior security officials flying to Washington for the talks are to present Israel’s objections to the Iranian nuclear deal, not to negotiate the deal, because what we are talking about is going back to the previous agreement, which is dangerous for Israel and the region.”
Last weekend, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired more than 40 rockets into southern Israel. Due to the emergency, IDF Chief of General Staff Aviv Kohavi canceled a trip to the United States that was scheduled for Sunday. Other generals who were scheduled to join the delegation, however, were still scheduled to travel to the U.S. on Sunday night.
According to The Guardian, a small militant group affiliated with the secular Palestinian Marxist-Leninist revolutionary organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed to have fired the rockets, although there were no no casualties.
In response, Israel used fighter jets and attack helicopters to bomb several Hamas-held military targets in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is a religious and political Islamist organization in Gaza with its own armed forces, and has been identified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Canada, the European Union, Jordan, Egypt and Japan.
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