Assistant US Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, will travel to Israel this week, the State Department announced on Saturday.
“In Jerusalem, the Assistant Secretary will meet with senior Israeli political and military leadership to discuss areas of mutual interest, including expanding and deepening Israel’s integration into the Middle East and constraining Iran’s destabilizing behavior,” the statement said.
Leaf will also visit Ramallah, where she “will meet with senior Palestinian leaders to discuss priority issues in US-Palestinian relations, including US efforts to support the Palestinian people. During her visit, the Assistant Secretary will also meet with both Israeli and Palestinian civil society.”
Leaf will then travel to Jordan, where she “will meet with senior Jordanian officials to discuss shared bilateral and regional priorities,” the statement concluded.
Leaf’s visit comes amid swirling rumors that the US and Iran are close to an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program.
A report by the New York Times this past week revealed details of an emerging deal between the United States and Iran regarding the Iranian nuclear program.
According to the report, the Americans are aiming to reach an informal, unwritten agreement, which some Iranian officials are calling a “political ceasefire,” which would prevent a further escalation.
The new deal — which two Israeli officials called “imminent” — would reportedly stipulate that Iran would not enrich uranium beyond its current production level of 60 percent purity.
Iran would also halt lethal attacks on American contractors in Syria and Iraq by its proxies in the region, expand its cooperation with international nuclear inspectors, and refrain from selling ballistic missiles to Russia.
In return, Iran demands the US avoid tightening sanctions and unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets, the use of which would be limited to humanitarian purposes, in exchange for the release of three Iranian American prisoners whom the US calls wrongfully detained.
The report in the Times followed a report in Axios, which said that Brett McGurk, US President Joe Biden’s senior Middle East adviser, took a low-profile trip to Oman in May for talks with Omani officials on possible diplomatic outreach to Iran regarding its nuclear program.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson later confirmed reports of indirect talks with the US in Oman, but denied it was interested an interim deal with Washington.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected reports that Washington and Tehran were close to deals on limiting Iran's nuclear program and releasing US citizens detained in the country.
"With regard to Iran, some of the reports that we've seen about an agreement on nuclear matters or, for that matter, on detainees, are simply not accurate and not true," Blinken said.