Israel and the United States have signed a secret memorandum of understanding to address the Iran threat facing both nations.
The pact, signed at the White House on December 12, entails full cooperation on dealing with Iran’s nuclear activities, its missile program, its support for terror and other activities.
The document is designed to translate into “steps on the ground” the positions laid out by U.S. President Donald Trump in his October 13 address on Iran, according to a Channel 10 news report broadcast Thursday in Israel. The report, which quoted both Israeli and U.S. officials, said the agreement was the result of intensive talks between high-level defense and intelligence representatives on both sides of the Atlantic. The teams were headed by U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Israel’s National Security chief Meir Ben-Shabbat.
Four joint teams are to be set up to address the various threats:
1. Iranian activity in Syria, and support for Hezbollah
2. Diplomatic, intelligence activities dealing with Iran’s attempts to achieve nuclear weapons
3. Iran’s ballistic missile program and missile systems construction in Syria and Lebanon
4. Preparation for escalation by Iran, Hezbollah.
The meeting confirmed that the U.S. and Israel “see eye to eye on the trends and processes in the region,” Channel 10 said, quoting Israeli officials, and adding that both nations have now reached agreement on the policy and strategies needed to address them.
In his speech on October 13, Trump said he had decided not to recertify the Iranian JCPOA nuclear deal and instead would launch a new strategy to deal with Iran’s regime. He left the question of how to deal with the JCPOA ultimately up to Congress, which had sixty days to decide.
“We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” he said at the time.