Netanyahu: I’ve spoken to Trump three times, we see eye to eye on Iran
The Israeli Prime Minister has close ties with both outgoing President Joe Biden and Trump, but his relationship with the former has been rocky.
By TOVAH LAZAROFFUpdated: NOVEMBER 10, 2024 21:28 PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu meets with US president Donald Trump prior to signing the Abraham Accords, at the White House, in 2020. Netanyahu was one of the first world leaders to send a congratulatory message to Trump on the heels of this week’s US presidential election, the writer notes.(photo credit: TOM BRENNER/REUTERS)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has spoken with US President-elect Donald Trump three times since in the last five days since the November 5 elections and that the two leaders are aligned on the dangers posed by Iran.“These were good and very important conversations” and were “designed to further tighten the strong alliance between Israel and the USA,” Netanyahu said, adding that this included a common agenda when it came to Tehran.
“We see eye to eye on the Iranian threat in all its components and the danger it poses,” Netanyahu told his government at its weekly meeting on Sunday in a statement that also seemed to be a veiled warning to Iran.
He and Trump are also aligned on the “great opportunities before Israel” particularly with regard to peace and the opportunities to expand it, Netanyahu said.
The Israeli Prime Minister has close ties with both outgoing US President Joe Biden and Trump, but his relationship with the former has been rocky due to sharp policy disagreements, while he and Trump are often in accord.
The S-200 missile system is displayed during the Iranian defence week, in a street in Tehran, Iran, September 24, 2024. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS)Netanyahu's relationship with US presidents
Netanyahu, for example, last spoke with Biden a month ago and has been to the White House only once, since returning to office in December 2022.Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, in contrast, is set to visit the White House for his third visit with Biden during the last four years.Trump is set to enter the White House as Israel is in the midst of a protracted multifront war with Iran and its proxies. He supported Israel’s stance on Iran during his first term in the White House from 2017-2021 and Israel expects him to do so as well now.Israel has been braced for weeks for a direct Iranian retaliatory attack, but it has kept its eye on the larger threat of a nuclear Iran.Defense Minister Israel Katz pledged to work to thwart Iran’s nuclear program and prevent the Islamic Republic from producing atomic bombs, at a changing of the guard ceremony at the Foreign Ministry. In that ceremony newly installed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar took up his position, replacing Katz who had just stepped into his new role as Defense Minister.
“The goals are very clear: thwarting the Iranian nuclear program and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons from Iran,” Katz said, adding that this “is the most important thing.”It is also important, he said, to prevent Iranian aggression in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria as well as preventing Tehran from opening up a new front in the West Bank, Katz said.Netanyahu and Katz spoke about Iran, as the general chief of staff of Saudi Arabia’s armed forces, Fayyad al-Ruwaili, visited Tehran on Sunday to meet with his Iranian counterpart and discuss defense ties, state media reported the Iranian Armed Forces General Staff as saying.Iran’s state media said al-Ruwaili headed a high-level Saudi military delegation in Tehran, met Armed Forces Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, and discussed bilateral and defense ties.Tehran and Riyadh agreed in March 2023, via Chinese intermediation, to reestablish relations after seven years of hostility that had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped to fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.Reuters contributed to this report.
