Report: Mossad chief meets Trump officials, presses to resume Iran war

Mossad Director Roman Gofman is in Washington on Friday for talks with senior Trump administration officials about the possibility of resuming the war against Iran, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presses U.S. President Donald Trump to renew military action against Tehran. Gofman was sent to Washington as part of Netanyahu's efforts to persuade the U.S. president to resume the offensive, Axios reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

According to Axios, Gofman met with CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Friday and is expected to travel to Miami for talks with White House envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff recently returned from Moscow, where he and fellow envoy Jared Kushner met Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to secure a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine. The Mossad, CIA and White House declined to comment on Gofman's visit. The talks come amid uncertainty over the future of U.S.-Iran negotiations, although Israeli officials believe diplomatic efforts have not yet collapsed.

On Thursday, Trump announced that he had instructed Vice President JD Vance to step away from negotiations with Tehran and focus instead on developments in U.S. cities and states governed by Democrats. “We don't need a deal with Iran. Those days are long gone. We have their money, hundreds of billions of dollars, and we have their strait! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote. The uncertainty comes as Israel faces political turmoil following its October 27 election, while Republicans are also dealing with losses in the U.S. midterms.

Ynet military analyst Yossi Yehoshua reported Friday that Israel's defense establishment is preparing for a range of possible scenarios involving Iran, but military officials would prefer any renewed campaign to be conducted alongside the United States rather than independently. They also favor broad political backing for such an operation rather than launching it under a caretaker government. Defense officials maintain that there is currently no urgent operational need to strike Iran.

Ynet military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai reported that neither Israeli intelligence nor U.S. intelligence agencies have information indicating that Iran currently possesses a weapon or other capability posing an existential threat to Israel. They also have no evidence of active development or production of such a weapon or system. Iranian officials have previously raised the possibility of withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and changing the country's nuclear doctrine to pursue an atomic bomb.

According to Ben-Yishai, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who supports that approach, is believed to have approved it in principle, although little practical progress has been made. His assessment is that the confrontation with Iran has not ended, but has merely been postponed.