1 \\ Israeli PM Netanyahu has instructed the Israeli delegation that is going to travel to Washington next week for strategic talks on Iran to stress Israel’s objection to a U.S. return to the 2015 nuclear deal and to refuse to discuss its contents, Israeli officials say

2 \\ This position puts the Israeli government on a collision course with the Biden administration. This position is similar to the one Israel took in the year before the 2015 nuclear deal and which led to a rift between the Israeli government and the Obama administration

3 \\ Senior Israeli national security officials will descend on Washington next week for talks on Iran: National security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Aviv Kochavi, military intelligence chief Tamir Hayman and Mossad director Yossi Cohen.

4 \\ Netanyahu convened a meeting on Thursday with those officials as well as Minister of Defense Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to discuss the policies to be presented in Washington

5 \\ An Israeli official said the decision at the end of the meeting was not to enter into a discussion over the current talks in Vienna other than objecting to a return to the nuclear deal and stressing it is dangerous for Israel

6 \\ During the meeting today Netanyahu stressed that Israel is not a party to the nuclear deal and therefore it is not bound by it in any way, an Israeli official told me

7 \\ Netanyahu said in the meeting that Israel will act only according to its national security interests and will maintain its freedom of operation against Iran in the region

8 \\ Netanyahu, Gantz and Ashkenazi decided that if in the future the U.S. will start a dialogue with Iran on a “longer and stronger” nuclear deal Israel will give its input regarding the parameters of such a new and improved nuclear deal, Israeli officials said. END