Foreign Minister Israel Katz warned against the dangerous activity of Iran and China, as he held a high-level meeting on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s summit in Washington.“The message was Iran, Iran, Iran,” a source close to Katz told The Jerusalem Post.Katz spoke out as Israel has been battling Iranian proxies for the last nine months, chiefly Hamas and Hezbollah. In April Iran directly attacked Israel with missiles and drones, which were thwarted by a coalition of five armies.
Israel’s growing enmity with Iran comes as the Islamic Republic has aligned itself with Russia, which is at war with Ukraine. That war was the main focus of the summit. Katz was able to leverage that focus to hammer home his message about Iran, particularly since Tehran has aligned itself with Russia, selling it armed drones that have been used against Ukraine.
Katz spoke with several US officials at summit
At the summit, Katz spoke with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin.He also met with his counterparts from South Korea. Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Denmark among others.In a post on X, Katz welcomed the commitment by Denmark and the Netherlands to push for stiffer sanctions against Iran.After meeting with Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veidkamp, Katz wrote, “Minister Veldkamp announced that the Netherlands will join the initiative to promote a decision in the EU to declare the IRGC a terrorist organization.”After meeting Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Katz wrote on X, “I reiterated that Iran poses the greatest threat to the West, and we now have a significant opportunity to build a broad coalition of many countries to increase sanctions against the Iranian regime.”