Mattis, who is on his first official visit as Pentagon Chief said that Iran seems to be complying with the JCPOA but Washington recognizes the need to confront the “destabilizing activities of Iran which continues to threaten Israel and its neighbors the region with ballistic missile through its maritime and cyber activities as well as through its proxies and surrogates such as Lebanese Hezbollah, a terrorist organization working to keep Assad in power in Syria.”Echoing statements made by senior IDF officials that the Assad regime in Syria still has residual amounts of chemical weapons such as Sarin gas, Liberman said that while he “hopes you don't think we will share our intelligence with you,” Jerusalem has information that has made it clear that “100% Assad used chemical weapons and we strongly support the American strikes in Syria” which sent a new message to the regime.Mattis, who said that the Syrian regime has dispersed its aircraft warned the regime against further use of chemical weapons.“The bottom line is that the Syrian regime has retained chemical weapons in violation of its agreement and its statement that they have removed them all. The amount we won't get into right now because we don’t want to reveal how we are finding out.I can say authoritatively that they have retained some and they are ill-advised to any again. We made that very clear with our strike.”The MOU signed between the two allies showcases Washington’s “absolute and unwavering commitment to Israel security and to its qualitative edge over Iran or other threats,” Mattis said."There must be more pressure and more sanctions placed on #Iran" #Israel's Defense Minister @AvigdorLiberman said today with Gen.Mattis pic.twitter.com/Ts0OH2PZxB
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) April 21, 2017
Mattis seemed to be taking a different tone to his stance in 2013 when he called the situation between Israel and the Palestinians “unsustainable” and blamed the settlements for harming prospects for peace, warning that they could turn Israel into an apartheid state.
“I believe in Israel’s security. Whatever it takes to keep Israel secure is where we stand and where we will always stand as Americans,” he said.“How Israel achieves its level of sustainable security is absolutely critical and it includes all the peoples here inside the borders of Israel or inside the Middle East. All these people have to work together to resolve it and it will have to be done in a way that looks out for the rights of all peoples.”