US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday vowed to counter Iranian “aggression” as the two met in Jerusalem just weeks ahead of Israel’s elections.
Pompeo was on a regional tour focused largely on Iran, but the meeting and his warm words on Netanyahu’s leadership were likely to be seen as support from US President Donald Trump’s administration amid the Israeli prime minister’s re-election fight.
Netanyahu, facing a stiff challenge from a centrist alliance in the April 9 polls while under threat of indictment for corruption, is to visit Washington next week, where he is to meet twice with Trump.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pompeo’s visit offered the right-wing prime minister an opportunity to burnish his security and diplomatic credentials — both key planks of his re-election campaign.
In comments after Pompeo’s arrival, Netanyahu said Trump’s pressure on Israel’s main enemy Iran was already having an effect, referring to his withdrawal from the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, and Washington’s reimposition of sanctions.
“We need to increase it, we need to expand it, and together the United States and Israel are working in close coordination to roll back Iranian aggression in the region and around the world,” he said.
Pompeo noted that a Middle East conference in Warsaw last month that included Arab nations as well as Israel, saying the discussions involved efforts “to stop Iran’s regional rampage” among other issues.
He also spoke of Iranian calls for Israel’s destruction.
“With such threats a daily reality of Israeli life, we maintain our unparallelled commitment to Israel’s security and firmly support your right to defend yourself,” he said.
Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to keep Tehran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria, where the Islamic republic backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes there against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets.
“There is no limitation to our freedom of action, and we appreciate very much the fact that the United States backs up our actions as we do them,” Netanyahu said.
Pompeo’s stay in Jerusalem also included a four-way meeting with Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday night.
The discussions included plans to build a natural gas pipeline from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe.
Pompeo, who later traveled to Lebanon, started his regional tour in Kuwait, where he met Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al Sabah.
The US’ top envoy is pushing for a greater role for the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), a US-sponsored Arab NATO-style bloc aimed at uniting Washington’s Arab allies against Tehran.
He urged Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both members of MESA, to bury the hatchet in a political dispute over regional policy that has placed the two powerful Gulf states at odds.
Pompeo said before his arrival that his trip to Israel had nothing to do with politics, saying the “relationship matters, no matter who the leaders are.”
No meetings with Netanyahu’s opponents were scheduled, and Pompeo did not meet with representatives of the Palestinian Authority.
Trump’s administration has taken a series of steps that the Palestinian Authority has deemed so hostile that it now refuses any contact with the US administration.
They included cutting most US aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
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