WASHINGTON (The Thursday Times) — The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Roman Gofman, was in Washington on Friday for talks on Iran with senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration, three sources with knowledge of the matter said, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presses Trump to resume the war.
Gofman was due to meet CIA Director John Ratcliffe and then travel to Miami to meet Steve Witkoff, the White House special envoy, the sources said. Mossad, the CIA, and the White House declined to comment.
Gofman, a major general who served as Netanyahu’s military secretary and is one of his closest confidants, took over Mossad in June. Last week, Israeli television reported that the two men had sought to carry out an operation against Iran on the eve of Israel’s October 27 election, a report Netanyahu’s office denied.
Pressure on Trump
Netanyahu has repeatedly asked Trump to return to fighting, and Trump has so far turned him down. In a phone call on October 31, Netanyahu pressed Trump to strike Iran right after the US midterm elections, but the president preferred to keep negotiating at the time.
Trump’s tone has since hardened. On Thursday he wrote that the United States no longer needed an agreement with Tehran. “We don’t need a deal with Iran. Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!” he said, and he told Vice President JD Vance, who had been part of the effort to end the war, to turn his attention to crime and corruption in Democrat-run cities and states.
A day later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said further military action was not needed because the “economic pain” Washington was inflicting on Iran was so great.
Eisenkot not told
Israeli television reported that Gofman’s trip was not disclosed to Gadi Eisenkot, the former military chief tasked with forming Israel’s next government, when Netanyahu gave him a two-hour security briefing on Thursday. Eisenkot had complained that Netanyahu’s staff turned down his requests for regular briefings, and he has warned against military moves that are not driven by an immediate threat while power changes hands.
Netanyahu’s bloc lost its majority in the October 27 election, and he remains caretaker prime minister until a new government is sworn in. Israel’s security cabinet is expected to meet on Sunday.
Pakistan, which hosted talks between Washington and Tehran earlier this year, called at the UN Security Council for an end to attacks in the Gulf and for the protection of commercial shipping.
