Image Courtesy: Dave Granlund
In a move to strengthen the intelligence grid to counter Iran in the Middle East region, the United States and Israel have signed a secret pact at White House on December 12. The agreement follows President Donald Trump’s October 13 speech decertifying the Iranian nuclear deal signed in 2015 by Barrack Obama.
According to a report, the deal was signed between the Israeli delegation headed by national security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and the US national security adviser H.R. McMaster. Members of both country's intelligence services were also present.
The two days of meeting agreed to set up four joint working groups to deal with all aspects of, what US and Israel considerers as Iranian threat. According to the report, one team was set up to engage in convert and diplomatic actions to block Iran’s path to nuclear weapons. The group also has the mandate to take diplomatic steps outside of the nuclear deal ‘to put more pressure’ on Iran.
The second group was tasked to counter Iranian activity in the region, especially the ‘Iranian entrenchment efforts’ in Syria and the Iranian support for Hezbollah and other groups. The group will also look into drafting a US-Israel policy regarding “days after” the Syrian civil war.
The third team was set up to counter Iran’s ballistic missiles program. The team was also asked to counter precision-guided missile manufacturing projects in the region. The US and Israel believe Iran is behind these ‘precision project’ and that missiles could be used against Israel in a future war.
The report notes that the fourth team was tasked with the preparation for ‘different escalation scenarios’ in the region- basically to make war plans.
An Israeli official, according to sources, said:
"[T]he U.S. and Israel see eye to eye the different developments in the region and especially those that are connected to Iran. We reached at understandings regarding the strategy and the policy needed to counter Iran. Our understandings deal with the overall strategy but also with concrete goals, way of action and the means which need to be used to get obtain those goals."
The decision to set up joint intelligence teams comes weeks after President Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which caused a severe backlash in the region. Last week, US and Israel were isolated in the UN General Assembly (UNGA), after 128 countries decided to vote in favour of the resolution condemning Trump's Jerusalem move.
Both US and Israel along with Saudi Arabia considers Iran as a threat due its strong opposition to US and Israel policies in the region. In November, Israel and Saudi Arabia had agreed to strengthen the intelligence-sharing network to counter increasing Iranian influence in the region.