President Rivlin will be accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi who will brief the European presidents on security matters during the meetings.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will visit three European capitals this week, Berlin, Vienna and Paris during which he will hold a series of meetings with the presidents of Germany, Austria and France.
Topics of discussion will be the dangers of Hezbollah’s rising power, the intensification of Iran’s nuclear project and the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor’s decision to open war crimes invesigations.
President Rivlin will be accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi who will brief the European presidents on security matters during the meetings.
On Tuesday, the president will meet with German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier after which the two leaders will give statements to the press, his office said.
On Wednesday, the president will depart for Vienna, where he will be received in an official reception at the presidential palace. After the ceremony, the president will meet with President Alexander Van der Bellen of Austria.
The presidents will deliver remarks at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the memorial for Jewish Austrians in Vienna.
On Thursday, Rivlin will depart for Paris, where he will hold a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
According to The Jerusalem Post, the IDF chief will highlight the failures of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
In January, Kochavi said that a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, or a “slightly improved” one, would be an operational and strategic mistake for the world.
If Iran’s progress in developing advanced centrifuges and enriching uranium is not stopped, it could eventually be only weeks away from a nuclear bomb, he warned.
On Friday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that officials in the Biden administration initiated indirect talks with Iran through intermediaries and are now waiting for a response from the Islamic Republic.
“There are communications through the Europeans and through others that enable us to explain to the Iranians what our position is, with respect to the compliance-for-compliance approach,” Sullivan told reporters.
“We’re waiting, at this point, to hear further from the Iranians how they would like to proceed,” Sullivan continued.