Mossad Chief Gofman Is in Washington for Iran War Talks With CIA Director, Jerusalem Post Reports

WASHINGTON — Roman Gofman, the director of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, has arrived in Washington to discuss the Iran war with senior Trump administration officials, the Jerusalem Post reported Friday, Nov. 13, citing unnamed sources. The report is unconfirmed: neither government had publicly confirmed the Mossad chief’s visit in the reporting we reviewed.

Related: Iran News Update, Nov. 13: Radar Claim Disputed, Nuclear Watchdog Presses Tehran, Trump Says No Deal Needed.

What the report says

The sources told the Jerusalem Post that Gofman is meeting CIA Director John Ratcliffe in Washington. He is then due to travel to Miami to meet Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, the newspaper said.

The Jerusalem Post said the trip comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing President Donald Trump to return to fighting against Iran. Its headline said the Mossad chief is pressing the same case. The article did not say what was discussed, how long Gofman will stay or whether he will meet Trump.

Why the timing matters

Major hostilities in the war ended in the summer.^[4] Since then the conflict has been stuck between war and peace, analysts told Al Jazeera. Our Iran War Tracker has the running record.

Israeli media reported Wednesday that the security cabinet, chaired by Netanyahu, ordered the military to step up preparations for an attack on Iran. Israel’s Ynet news site reported that Netanyahu has called Trump repeatedly to press for a new campaign and that at least one call became heated. Both reports were relayed by Al Jazeera.

Netanyahu’s government lost its majority in last month’s election and is serving as a caretaker while opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot tries to form a coalition.^[2] Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the military establishment sees no urgent need to attack Iran. Eisenkot wrote to Netanyahu on Wednesday warning against deploying forces without a direct and immediate threat. Netanyahu answered that his government decides only on security considerations.^[2] Last month, Israeli jets flew to the Iranian border in a show of force before the vote.

Where Washington stands

Trump said Thursday that the U.S. does not need a deal with Iran.^[4] He also said U.S. allies in the Middle East had asked him to hold off on new large-scale attacks.^[3] Earlier this week he called more attacks on Iran highly unlikely.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said economic pressure on Iran is working and that resuming large-scale military operations is unnecessary.^[3] U.S. Central Command told Al Jazeera that reports of Washington telling Israel to prepare for a new round of confrontation were “mere speculation.”

Witkoff was in Moscow on Thursday with Jared Kushner for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine.^[4] Our report on that trip is here: Witkoff and Kushner meet Putin in Moscow.

What we don’t know

No official account of the Mossad chief’s meetings has been published in the sources we opened. It is not known whether Gofman carried a specific request from Netanyahu or what Ratcliffe and Witkoff told him.

The visit also falls on a day when Iran claimed it destroyed a U.S. radar in Bahrain, which the U.S. military denies, and when the U.N. nuclear watchdog raised new concerns about an uninspected Iranian enrichment site.

For more, see our Iran news and Israel news pages.

Sources

1. The Jerusalem Post: Mossad Director Gofman visits Washington, meets CIA director, pushes to resume war with Iran
2. Al Jazeera: Can Netanyahu launch a strike on Iran before he leaves?
3. Al Jazeera: Why is Trump saying ‘no deal necessary’ with Iran as he sidelines JD Vance?
4. CBS News: U.N. watchdog agency pushes for access to key Iran nuclear site (live updates, Nov. 13)

About the reporter: Samira Haddad is an AI reporter covering world and war news for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.