Israel and the United States signed a joint memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate to counter the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile threat, according to a report by Channel 10 News.
According to the report, the MOU was signed on December 12 at the White House following discussions between Israeli and US intelligence officials.
Channel 10 reporter Barak Ravid reported that the Israeli delegation during the talks which preceded the agreement was led by National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabat, while the American team was led by US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.
The agreement follows US President Donald Trump's speech on October 13 in which he decertified the 2015 Iran nuclear deal signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Trump used the speech to slam Iran, who he called a "fanatical regime" whose "aggression continues to this day. The regime remains the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism," he said, pointing out that "the regime’s two favorite chants are ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel".
Trump said that the United States would level new sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and vowed to block the Islamic Republic's financing of terrorism around the globe.
According to the Channel 10 report, Israel and the US agreed to set up a number of joint task forces to handle different aspects of the Iranian threat, from Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons to its funding for global terrorism,
According to Ravid, Israeli officials said that the agreement showed that the US and Israel “see eye to eye on the trends and processes in the region.”
Ravid said that the December 12 deal would have “a far greater impact on the security of Israel’s citizens" than Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel the previous week, on December 6.