Reports Oct. 6 said that a meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Russian President Vladimir Putin could take place Oct. 22. The reports said that the meeting would focus on Iran and on other strategic regional issues. Still, it seems that the date has not been finalized yet for a Bennett visit to Moscow, and could be postponed. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visited Moscow Sept. 9 and met there with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. The possibility of a Bennett-Putin meeting was discussed on that occasion, but without naming a date.

At his September meeting with Lavrov, Lapid referred to recent reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about Iran, saying, “The two [IAEA] reports are damning. They include serious violations. Fraud, deception and outright lies. The picture is clear and very worrying. A rapidly advancing nuclear program without any effective supervision. The message to Iran must be loud and it must be clear. Iran's march toward a nuclear weapon is not only an Israeli problem. It's a problem for the entire world."

Lapid himself is scheduled to visit the United States on Oct. 12-14, at the invitation of Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Lapid and Blinken last met in Rome June 27, shortly after Lapid assumed office. Since then, they have spoken on the phone a number of times. Reports say that apart from Blinken, Lapid is expected to meet in Washington with other American senior officials, including US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Walla news site said that Lapid’s visit to Washington will focus on Iran. Jerusalem has been pressuring Washington lately to consider other options on the Iran talks. Such options would be needed, argues Jerusalem, in case the talks are not renewed soon or in the case that Tehran refuses to take up the constraints that were included at the time in the original Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement. This message about the necessity of formulating other options is reportedly the message Lapid would relay to his American interlocutors next week.