Israel delegation at White House for Syria, Iran talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. AP

WASHINGTON–A senior Israeli delegation visited the White House Monday for high-level talks on the building Syria crisis and the nuclear showdown with Iran.

Officials said US National Security Advisor Susan Rice met retired Israeli major general Yaakov Amidror, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top national security advisor.

The talks centered on “Iran, Egypt, Syria, and a range of other regional security issues,” said US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

The talks came as Washington mulls a military response to a chemical weapons attack on Syrian civilians last week that it has blamed on President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Israel has frequently expressed disquiet at Syria’s chemical weapons program and is believed to have made several aerial strikes against Syrian missile targets during its neighbor’s civil war.

Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday called for an international effort to take out Syria’s chemical weapons.