National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror is heading to Washington next week to meet with senior White House and intelligence community officials. On his agenda is the situation in Egypt, Maariv reports. While the trip was planned for some time, the recent events taking place in Egypt will undoubtedly shift the senior official’s agenda to that country.

One of the issues Amidror will probe is who leaked the information that led to the recent New York Times report that stated Israel worked behind the scenes to persuade the US to halt military aid to Egypt at this time.

Earlier in the week a confidential message was sent from Jerusalem to a number of Israeli diplomatic officials in Europe and N. America explaining Israel’s position vis-à-vis the events in Egypt to enable these officials to comment when asked to comment. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was briefed ahead of the move in his capacity as the foreign minister.

Foreign Ministry officials are aware of the direct impact events in Egypt can have in Israel due to the nature of the relationship between the countries.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)