U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will visit Israel next week for the first trip to the Middle East through a member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet, according to a Tuesday report.
While in Israel, Austin is expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, according to the newspaper Axios.
Austin, a retired general, was at the head of the U.S. Central Command, which operates in the Middle East, during a period of Gantz’s tenure with the IDF. The two spoke shortly after Austin took office in January.
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Israeli officials quoted in the report said Austin’s meetings will focus on Iran and other regional issues, as well as ensuring that the Biden government achieves the understanding it has gained during the last weeks of the Trump administration for the United States. was achieved to guarantee the so-called qualitative military advantage of Israel. in the region.
It was not clear whether Austin would visit other regional states.
According to the report, the visit will take place amid growing tensions between Israel and Iran. The two countries recently accused each other of attacking a number of merchant ships and damaging them with explosives. The vessels were only slightly damaged in any case and there were no injuries in the incidents.
Another such attack was reported on Tuesday, with Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim hitting a Iranian-flagged vessel in the Red Sea by a limp mine. Israel has not commented on the reported attack, which Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya claims has carried out Israeli commandos.
Austin’s trip will also come because Biden wants to rejoin the 2015 agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program, in exchange for sanctions easing, from which former President Donald Trump withdrew from the US.
On Tuesday, the remaining parties to the agreement in Vienna began on a US return to the treaty, with the Biden government indirectly for the first time.
Biden has insisted he will not remove sanctions until Iran fully complies with the agreement, which has been increasingly violated since the 2018 US withdrawal.
Israel is strongly opposed to returning to the agreement in its original form, and has communicated just as much to Washington. The parties recently re – established a bilateral group that worked together in an effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and agreed to form a joint team to share information on Iran’s nuclear program.
