Netanyahu announces Barnea as new Mossad chief

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the appointment of David Barnea as the new head of the country's spy agency, Mossad.

Barnea, a former longtime Mossad operative, will succeed Yossi Cohen as head of Israel's intelligence agency on June 1.

Cohen, who has acted as Netanyahu's close confidant and informal envoy, has served as Israel's spymaster since taking office in 2016.

He helped orchestrate the normalization agreements Israel signed with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco last year.

Earlier this month, Cohen visited Bahrain and met with the heads of the Gulf state's intelligence agency to discuss regional security.

On his watch, Israel's storied intelligence agency succeeded in seizing a large archive of Iranian nuclear documents in 2018.

Netanyahu claimed they proved that Iranian leaders covered up a nuclear weapons program before signing a deal with world powers in 2015.

Numerous other operations against Iran's nuclear facilities and scientists have also been attributed to Israel.

During Monday's ceremony, Netanyahu told Barnea "all must be done, all, to ensure that under no circumstances will Iran arm itself with nuclear weapons".