U.S. Defense Secretary To Visit Israel To Discuss 'Security Needs'

Source: Haaretz

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will arrive in Israel on Sunday evening, ahead of meetings to discuss Israel’s security needs with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.

Carter’s visit comes only days after a phone conversation between Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, after which Kerry described Netanyahu’s claim that a better Iran deal could have been obtained as “fantasy.” Carter will be making his first working visit to Israel since assuming office last February. The two defense ministers will meet on Monday, while Carter is set to meet Netanyahu on Tuesday.

Carter’s visit had been planned prior to last week’s nuclear agreement between Iran and the six world powers. Senior sources in the Israeli defense establishment claimed the deal legitimized Iran as a nuclear “threshold state,” and will enable it to continue funding terrorist organizations operating against Israel, including Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Pentagon described Carter’s visit as a continued search for solutions to some of the critical security challenges facing Israel, including stopping the unsettling actions of Iran (with regard to Israel’s security), as well as discussing ways to prevent terrorist attacks.


Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.666662

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US Defense Chief To Arrive In Israel Bearing Gifts

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter arrives in Israel on Sunday bearing gifts, on the heels of an acrimonious conversation between his colleague John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Kerry, relating the conversation in an interview with PBS on Friday, said Netanyahu’s claim that a better nuclear deal with Iran could have been obtained was a “fantasy.”

--CLIP

Netanyahu waiting for 2017?

But the Israeli PM may have another reason for refusing to be mollified by Obama Administration offers. "American officials tell me," wrote one of Israel's leading columnists, Nahum Barnea, "that Netanyahu is looking ahead, beyond Obama. In January 2017, a new president will enter the White House. Netanyahu believes he will be Republican and sympathetic."

In his weekly column in the mass circulation Yediot Ahronot, Barnea added: "This new president, Netanyahu believes, will welcome him to the White House as a hero and grant him his every request."

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