By Itzhak Rabihiya Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met this afternoon (Monday, 28 October 2019), with US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. Later Netanyahu, met at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, with US President Donald Trump’s Senior Adviser, Jared Kushner. Also attending the meeting were US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, Deputy Assistant to the US President Avi Berkowitz, National Security Council Director Meir Ben-Shabbat and Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer. Prime Minister Netanyahu said : "It’s always a great pleasure to welcome Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt to Israel, to Jerusalem, and to discuss our common efforts for prosperity, security and peace. I’m tremendously encouraged by how the United States, under President Trump, is working to bring allies together in this region against common challenges, but also to seize common opportunities. And, you know, we had a little event last night. That’s not going to stop us. We’re going to continue working together. We had a great, productive meeting, which reaffirms that the alliance between the United States of America has never been stronger, and it’s going to get even stronger." Jared Kushner said:"I want to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for his gracious hospitality. I send greetings from President Trump for you and for all people of Israel. This was my first time in Israel since the President recognized the Golan Heights, which was a very important announcement. The security of Israel is something that’s critical to the relations between America and Israel, and also very important to the President, and we appreciate all your efforts to strengthen the relationship between our two countries. It’s never been stronger, and we’re very excited about all the potential that lies ahead for Israel, for the relationship, and for the future." Before that Prime Minister Netanyahu at the start of the meeting: “Welcome, Secretary Mnuchin. This is I don’t know which visit since you took office. Our relationship and our alliance has never been stronger. First, I want to congratulate President Trump, the Armed Forces of the United States and the American people for the successful action against Baghdadi, and it’s good that this murderer has met his fate. We do know that we still have an ongoing battle against terrorism, both of the extremist Sunnis led by Daesh, but also the extremist Shiites led by Iran, that is making a plunge for everything and everywhere in the Middle East. Iran is seeking to develop now precision-guided munitions, missiles that can hit any target in the Middle East with a circumference of five to ten meters. They are developing this in Iran. They want to place them in Iraq and in Syria, and to convert Lebanon’s arsenal of 130,000 statistical rockets to precision-guided munitions. They seek also to develop that, and have already begun to put that in Yemen, with the goal of reaching Israel from there too.  We view Iran as the greatest threat to peace, stability and our security, and the security of many others. They fired into Saudi Arabia. They’ve interfered with international shipping lanes. They’ve attacked Americans and they’ve killed Americans throughout the last ten years in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Iran is the single greatest threat to stability and peace in the Middle East. That doesn’t mean that there are no others. There are. We are, the Middle East is rich with several things, and one of them is terrorist-exporting nations and groups. Also attending the meeting were – inter alia – National Security Council Director Meir Ben-Shabbat, Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron, Prime Minister’s Office Acting Director General Ronen Peretz, National Economic Council Chairman Avi Simhon. Attached photo credit: Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO) |
