Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Aviv Kochavi reiterated Israel’s position against the United States rejoining the Iran nuclear deal during a meeting in Washington. Yesterday Kochavi met with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other top American defense officials including Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, and Cara Abercrombie, the special adviser to the president on defense affairs. The IDF head voiced warnings over the “failures of the current nuclear deal,” urging his counterparts to explore alternative methods to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. An IDF statement read, “Throughout the day, the chief of staff has presented possible ways to prevent Iran from obtaining military nuclear capabilities during his meetings.”

Kochavi arrived to Washington June 20, and is scheduled to go back home tomorrow, June 25. Upon arrival, he was welcomed by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley. Kochavi met with the US national security team and with US Central Command chief Frank McKenzie and US Special Operations Command head Richard Clarke. He is set to meet CIA director William Burns and National Intelligence director Avril Haynes this afternoon.

Unconfirmed reports said yesterday the United States was seeking to extend the time between rounds of negotiations with Iran in order to confer with the new Israeli government on the issue and better understand its positions. Addressing the new cabinet on June 20, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said of the presidential elections in Iran, "[Ebrahim] Raisi's election is, I would say, the last chance for world powers to wake up before returning to the nuclear agreement, and understand who they are doing business with." 

Still, other reports on the policies of the new government said that it is putting in place a dialogue channel with Washington on the issue of Iran and that it plans to send security experts to Washington to discuss ways to better enforce the deal's limitations on the Iranian nuclear program and which sanctions should be kept in place if the United States indeed returns to the deal.