JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday Israel would “finish the job” against Iran with US support, during a Jerusalem news conference with visiting Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Over the last 16 months, Israel has dealt a mighty blow to Iran’s terror axis. Under the strong leadership of President (Donald) Trump and with your unflinching support, I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job,“ Netanyahu said.
In the wake of Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 2023 attack, Israel has fought wars against the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group in Gaza and Tehran-allied Hezbollah in Lebanon.
It has also faced attack from Iran-backed armed groups in Yemen and Iraq arrayed against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
“Israel and America stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat of Iran,“ the Israeli prime minister added.
Netanyahu has welcomed the election of US President Donald Trump who has swiftly reinstated a “maximum pressure” policy against Iran, similar to the one pursued in the president’s first term, over allegations the country is seeking a nuclear weapons capability.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Iran would never become a nuclear power, calling the Islamic republic the “greatest” source of instability in the Middle East.
“There can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action. That can never happen,“ Rubio told the joint news conference with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, adding that Iran was the “single greatest source of instability in the region”.
“Whether we talk about Hamas or we talk about Hezbollah, or we talk about violence in the West Bank, or we talk about destabilisation in Syria, or we talk about any of these issues, the militias in Iraq, they all have behind them one common theme, Iran,“ Rubio added.
Iran and Israel traded direct attacks last year for the first time against the backdrop of soaring regional tensions triggered by the Gaza war.
On October 26, Israel bombed military sites in Iran, killing four servicemen, in response to an October 1 barrage of about 200 missiles from Iran.
On April 13, Iran sent drones and missiles in Israel, in retaliation for a deadly April 1 attack on its Damascus consulate, blamed on Israel.
