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The director of Mossad agency will visit Washington D.C. next week, a senior Israeli official said Sunday.
David Barnea, who replaced Yossi Cohen as chief of Israel’s national intelligence agency last year, is slated to speak with senior White House officials about the nuclear talks in Vienna.
The Biden administration and European powers involved in the talks are widely expected to wrap up negotiations with Tehran in the next few weeks, leading to the signing of an agreement restoring the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which the U.S. pulled out of in 2018 under the Trump administration.
Last Thursday, Barnea sharply criticized the Biden White House over the impending agreement, and accused the administration of lying to Israel.
"We are making a pasted copy of the 2015 agreement, and the only thing that remains from then is the text," Barnea said in closed conversations.
Barnea said that the deal the Biden administration presented to Israel is "based on lies."
"The American willingness to sign the agreement goes against common sense. The agreement will be bad even if the US accepts some of our comments.”
Barnea’s comments drew a rebuke from Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
A White House spokesperson confirmed to Walla! Sunday evening that Barnea is slated to visit Washington next week.
“Mossad director David Barnea very recently scheduled a visit to Washington for the beginning of September. We are looking forward to holding discussions with him, as we do with other senior Israeli officials.”
Hours earlier on Sunday, Lapid held a press conference on the likely restoration of the Iran nuclear deal, criticizing the format of the draft currently under consideration.
A satisfactory agreement “would not have an end date,” Lapid said, adding that the deal should have “tighter” oversight and include restrictions on Tehran’s ballistic missile program.
Lapid also argued that the deal should bar Iran from support terrorist organizations.
The prime minister blamed Netanyahu for the deal, singling out his 2015 address to Congress on the eve of the original agreement.
“To this day, we are paying for the damage caused by Netanyahu’s address to Congress. As a result of it, the American government ended its dialogue with us and barred Israel from presenting changes to the deal.”