The director of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency David Barnea has presented CIA chief William Burns with a dossier warning that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is mentally unstable and incapable of abiding by any international agreement on Iran's nuclear program.
Raisi was sworn in last week, replacing perceived moderate Hassan Rouhani in what was seen as a hardline shift by Tehran.
3 View gallery
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meeting with CIA chief William Burns in Jerusalem on Wednesday
(Photo: GPO)
Israel confirmed that Burns met Tuesday with Barnea to discuss Iran's nuclear program "and other regional challenges."
According to the Israeli media, the dossier paints the new Iranian leader as a "deranged misfit" with an exceptionally cruel streak. Raisi is subject to U.S. sanctions imposed over the executions of political prisoners in 1988, in which he denies playing a role. The executions of thousands of dissidents during his judicial career earned him the moniker "Butcher of Tehran."
Burns, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday, held talks Wednesday with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, with Iran again high on the agenda.
The Prime Minister's Office said after their meeting Wednesday that the two "discussed tightening intelligence and security cooperation between Israel and the U.S., the situation in the Middle East, especially Iran, and possibilities for expanding and deepening regional cooperation."
Burns was also due to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Raisi, 60, is seen as close to 81-year-old Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who holds ultimate political power in Iran.
His victory had been widely anticipated after the Guardian Council, made up of 12 clerics and jurists, had approved just seven candidates, all men, out of a field of almost 600 hopefuls.
Israel expressed alarm at his election, with Bennett saying that the move was a final opportunity for world powers to "wake up" to the true nature of the regime in Tehran.
Speaking in English during a cabinet meeting in June, in a statement apparently aimed at the international community, the prime minister warned that the election should show world powers exactly with whom they were trying to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement abandoned by former president Donald Trump.
"Raisi's election, I would say, is the last chance for the world powers to wake up before returning to the nuclear agreement and to understand who they are doing business with," said Bennett.
"These guys are murderers - mass murderers. A regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction that will enable it to not kill thousands but millions. Israel's position will not change on this."
3 View gallery
Smoke and flames can be seen on MV Mercer Street, an Israeli-managed oil tanker hit in a deadly attack believed to have been carried out by Iran last month
(Photo: Twitter)
Regional tensions have risen over an attack on July 29 on an Israeli-managed tanker off the coast of Oman that Israel, the United States and Britain blamed on Tehran.
NATO also said that Iran appeared to be responsible for the suspected drone strike in which two crew members - a Briton and a Romanian - were killed.
Iran has denied any involvement in the attack.