US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with four top officials on Aug. 24 during his quick visit to Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Mossad director Yossi Cohen.

Cohen played the most important role in the historic normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Pompeo and Cohen had some loose ends to deal with and a lot of information to exchange before the Israeli delegation leaves for Abu Dhabi on Aug. 31 to push ahead with the normalization process. There are also other agreements, most notably with Sudan and Oman, that look like they will be finalized soon.

Ashkenazi may be the minister of foreign affairs, but Cohen is the uncontested architect of the regional peace initiative that was revealed this week. The prime minister consults with him on a regular basis and relies on him to get things done. Over the last few years, Cohen made numerous clandestine visits to the Gulf states and worked with Netanyahu on the tangle of relationships being woven together with pragmatic Arab states. It's all part of a larger effort to forge an alliance against Iran, especially a nuclear Iran. Cohen accompanied Netanyahu on his historic visit to Oman in November 2018 and came under considerable criticism for it from the staff of the Foreign Ministry, who complained he was encroaching on their territory.

Cohen is not the first Mossad chief to conduct secret missions on behalf of the prime minister. However, his clandestine and public diplomatic activity has been by far the farthest-reaching and most important. Cohen is also open about his ambition to get to the prime minister's office after Netanyahu. He plans to do so from within the Likud as leader of the right.