The director of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, David Barnea, has arrived in the United States for talks about the crisis in Iran, while his American counterpart, John Ratcliffe, is currently in Venezuela.
Barnea arrived in the US today to discuss the situation in Iran, reports Axios citing an Israeli official and another informed source.
He is expected to meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami, while it is not yet known whether US President Donald Trump will join the talks.
This trip comes after a phone call between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Netanyahu reportedly asked Trump to postpone any action against Iran to avoid wider escalations in the region.
Meanwhile, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, in Caracas on Thursday, a US official said.
"Together, they discussed potential opportunities for economic cooperation and underlined that Venezuela can no longer serve as a safe haven for enemies of the United States, especially drug traffickers," the official said.
According to him, the meeting was aimed at building trust and reflects Ratcliffe's approach to making the CIA less risk-averse, writes cnn.
This development comes at a time when Trump has declared that he has established control over Venezuela, especially over its oil production, claiming that the US will practically "administer" the country after the overthrow of Nicolás Maduro earlier this month.
Trump has expressed support for Rodríguez, a key figure in the regime for years, at the expense of opposition leader María Corina Machado, who also met with the president on Thursday.
Both Rodríguez and Machado are trying to win Trump's support; Machado even presented him with his Nobel Peace Prize medal during their meeting. /Telegraph/
