US and Israeli defense chiefs talk Iran, ISIS at London meeting

WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter met with his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Liberman, and discussed Iran, a signal that the Obama administration was moving past Liberman’s likening of the Iran nuclear deal to the Munich pact.

“The secretary and minister discussed regional security challenges in the Middle East including the ISIL threat, Iran, ways to expand and accelerate cyber coordination, as well as other areas of mutual defense cooperation,” said a statement from the Pentagon on Wednesday, describing the meeting that had taken place in London on the sidelines of a conference on peacekeeping. ISIL is one of several acronyms for the Islamic State terrorist group.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from Liberman’s statement likening the Iran deal, which exchanges Iranian nuclear rollbacks for sanctions relief, to the pre-World War II Munich pacts, which handed Nazi Germany territory in a bid to head off further invasions.

“The Israeli defense establishment believes that agreements have value only if they are based on reality,” the statement from Liberman’s ministry said at the time.

The statement came after President Barack Obama again defended the deal by noting that some Israeli officials had confirmed it reduced for now the threat of a nuclear Iran and was considered impolitic, especially as the Netanyahu government and the Obama administration are putting the final touches on an agreement extending and expanding U.S. defense assistance to Israel for another decade.

Defense assistance was also addressed at the Carter-Liberman meeting, as was Carter’s plans to visit Israel.

“The secretary reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Israel’s qualitative military edge and to strong U.S.-Israel defense relations. Secretary Carter told the minister he looks forward to visiting Israel later this year,” the Pentagon statement said.