Defense Minister Benny Gantz departed to the US on Wednesday night, where he will be meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss military options against Iran’s nuclear program in the event that the current talks in Vienna fail.

Gantz is also scheduled to meet with Israel’s Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The meeting between Gantz and Austin follows an October 25 briefing by Pentagon leaders to White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on all available military options that can ensure Iran does not achieve nuclear capability, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing an anonymous US official.

“We’re in this pickle because Iran’s nuclear program is advancing to a point beyond which it has any conventional rationale,” the official told Reuters.

“Iran is a threat to world peace and seeks to become an existential threat to Israel,” Gantz said prior to boarding his flight to Washington. “We will discuss possible courses of action to ensure that it stops its attempt to reach the nuclear arena and expand its activities in the region.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)