US, Israel defense chiefs to discuss mock joint military strike against Iran

Israeli’s defense minister Benny Gantz arrives in Washington on Thursday to discuss possible joint military exercises to prepare for diplomacy’s failure to disarm Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reports. Mossad Chief Dan Barnea arrived earlier to update US officials on Israeli intelligence on Iran’s nuclear advances and its international campaign of terror. Gantz, in a post on Twitter, said: “We will discuss possible modes of action to ensure the cessation of (Iran’s) attempt to enter the nuclear sphere and broaden its activity in the region.” He did not elaborate.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price said alternatives to continuing negotiations with Iran will be a topic of discussion with Gantz. “I fully expect regional security issues [to be discussed],” he said.

A senior US official said: “We’re in this pickle because Iran’s nuclear program is advancing to a point beyond which it has any conventional rationale.” He added: “When President Biden says Iran will never get a nuclear weapon, I mean, he means it.”

Nuclear negotiations  in Vienna resume on Thursday. The US special envoy for Iran plans to join them over the weekend.

 

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