JERUSALEM
\nIsrael and the United States are determined to thwart Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions and its \u201caggression\u201d in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
\nSpeaking after meeting Rubio in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said they had held a \u201cvery productive discussion\u201d on a number of issues, \u201cnone more important than Iran\u201d.
\n\u201cIsrael and America stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat of Iran,\u201d he said. \u201cWe agreed that the ayatollahs must not have nuclear weapons and also agreed that Iran\u2019s aggression in the region must be rolled back.\u201d
\nRubio said: \u201cBehind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilising activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people that call this region home is Iran.\u201d
\nIsraeli-Iranian enmity stretches back decades through a history of clandestine wars and attacks by land, sea, air and cyberspace.
\nIran, which says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, has also backed groups across the Middle East that describe themselves as the \u201cAxis of Resistance\u201d to Israel and U.S. influence in the region.
\nThe Axis includes not only Hamas, the Palestinian group that ignited the Gaza war by attacking Israel in October 2023, but also the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, the Houthi movement in Yemen, various Shi\u2019ite armed groups in Iraq and Syria.
\nOver the 16 months since the Gaza war erupted, Israel has assassinated top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah and Israel and Iran have exchanged limited retaliatory attacks.
\nNetanyahu said Israel had dealt a \u201cmighty blow\u201d to Iran since the start of the war in Gaza and said that with the support of U.S. President Donald Trump \u201cI have no doubt we can and will finish the job\u201d.
\nThanking Rubio for \u201cunequivocal backing\u201d for Israel\u2019s policy in Gaza, Netanyahu said Israel and the United States under Trump shared a common strategy in the Palestinian enclave, where a fragile ceasefire is in effect.
\n\u201cI want to assure everyone who\u2019s now listening to us, President Trump and I are working in full cooperation and coordination between us,\u201d he said.
\nCRAFTING SYRIA STRATEGY
\nRubio added: \u201cHamas can not continue as a military or government force and as long as it stands as a force that can govern or administer or a force that can threaten by use of violence, peace becomes impossible.\u201d
\nIsrael launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
\nMore than 48,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of the enclave has been laid waste and most of the territory\u2019s 2.3 million prewar population has been displaced multiple times, humanitarian agencies say.
\nTrump has angered the Arab world and surprised the United States\u2019 allies by declaring that the United States will take over Gaza, resettle its Palestinian inhabitants and redevelop it into an international beach resort.
\nHis ambitions have fuelled Palestinian fears of a repeat of the 1948 \u201cNakba\u201d, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed of their homes in the war at the birth of the state of Israel.
\nRubio described Trump\u2019s plan as \u201cnot the same tired ideas of the past, but something that is bold … and something that frankly took courage and vision in order to outline\u201d.
\n\u201cIt may have shocked and surprised many but what cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again and end in the same place,\u201d he said.
\nArab states are working to present an alternative vision for Gaza, which was plagued by poverty and unemployment even before the war between Israel and Hamas erupted.
\nRubio was cautious on the subject of Syria, which was torn apart by a civil war and will need billions of dollars to rebuild after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Iran.
\nAssad was toppled by rebels led by Islamist Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al Qaeda affiliate and leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
\nSharaa was declared president for a transitional phase in late January, tightening his hold on power less than two months after he led a campaign that toppled Assad.
\n\u201cWhile the fall of Assad is certainly promising and important, if Syria replacing one destabilising force for another, it\u2019s not a positive development,\u201d Rubio said.
\n\u201cThis is something we will watch very carefully as we seek to craft our own strategy in regards to how to approach the events in Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
JERUSALEM Israel and the United States are determined to thwart Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions and its \u201caggression\u201d in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Speaking after meeting Rubio in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said they had held a \u201cvery productive discussion\u201d on a number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-462008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n