In the coming week, the U.S. National Security Advisor visits Israel.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for the lunar new year during a COVID surge,

and tensions between Greece and Turkey draw new concerns.

It's January 19, 2023 in time for the world next week. I'm Bob McMahon.

And I'm Stephen Cook, filling in for Jim Lindsay.

Stephen is the Enrique Enrique Monté Senior Fellow for the Middle East and Africa Studies at CFR.

Stephen, thanks again for joining us on the show.

Thanks, Bob.

It's always a great pleasure. Stephen, let's begin with Israel. the show. Thanks, Bob. It's always a great pleasure.

Stephen, let's begin with Israel. In the days ahead, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is

going to visit Israel and speak to the newly returned prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu,

to focus on, it looks to be a discussion about Iran among main regional challenges.

Stephen, give us a sense of why this visit could be significant.

Well, it's the first high-level American visit to Israel since Benjamin Netanyahu returned to the

prime ministry. There had been a couple of high-level Israeli visits, including Ron Dermer, who was

the ambassador to the United States during

Netanyahu's previous turn at the prime ministry, who's now a kind of minister, advisor for

strategic affairs to sort of set the table for Jake Sullivan's visit, as well as the possibility

that the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, will also visit in the coming weeks.

The primary topic is going to be Iran. Both the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of

State have indicated that the Iranians essentially blew an opportunity to rejoin the Joint

Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran nuclear deal.

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