The head of the Israeli National Security Agency, Eyal Holata, said on Tuesday that Iran remains the main security challenge facing Israel.
Hulata was speaking at a conference organized by the Israeli Institute for Democracy (private), and Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office sent excerpts from his speech to Anatolia.
“Iran remains the main security challenge facing Israel, and it is a multidimensional challenge,” Holata explained.
He added, “The Iranian nuclear program and Iranian activities in the region are among the main issues at the top of our agenda, in addition to global terrorism, which has become tangible, and all of this goes beyond our borders.”
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He continued, “Last weekend, I attended a conference held in Bahrain that dealt with the issue of national security, and it became clear that dealing with Iran has gained international consensus.”
And he added, “Iran does not constitute a problem confined to us only. The President of the European Commission (Ursula von der Leyen) succeeded in defining Iran as a global problem.”
Holata considered that “Israel is integrating into the region.”
He added, “The process began with the Abraham Accords, passing through the Negev Forum and the long-term and very warm relations that are established between the prime minister, the National Security Agency, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and their counterparts in the region.”
On September 15, 2020, Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain signed agreements to normalize relations, which the White House called the “Abraham Accords,” and then Morocco and Sudan joined them.
While Israel held the “Negev Summit” in March 2022 in the southern city of the Negev, which included the foreign ministers of Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, the UAE and the United States.
“We are witnessing a period of great prosperity over the past year and a half in this regard, not only in terms of security, but also economically and culturally with the surrounding countries,” Holata said.
And he added, “This finds expression through the trade agreements that we have concluded and the cross-border energy projects that we have accomplished in the region. Relationships that we usually view from a security point of view become of an economic and social nature.”
Israel has repeatedly declared that it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
