By Eugenia Yosef, Ibrahim Dahman, Irene Nasser, Jennifer Hansler and Mostafa Salem, CNN
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make a joint statement to the media at the prime minister's office in Jerusalem on 16 February. Photo: AFP Pool / Evelyn Hockstein via Getty Images via CNN Newsource
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to "finish the job" against Iran with the support of US President Donald Trump.
Netanyahu was speaking on Sunday alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is visiting Israel in his first official trip to the region since assuming the role.
"Over the last 16 months, Israel has dealt a mighty blow to Iran's terror axis. Under the strong leadership of President Trump… I have no doubt that we can and will finish the job," Netanyahu said.
Rubio said that there "could never be a nuclear Iran."
"It's important to constantly point that whether we talk about Hamas or we talk about Hezbollah, we talk about violence in the West Bank, or we talk about destabilization 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.
"That must be addressed," he added.
US intelligence agencies recently warned both the Biden and Trump administrations that Israel will likely attempt to strike facilities key to Iran's nuclear programme this year, according to sources familiar with the assessments.
Israel's willingness to use military force runs counter to President Donald Trump's current desire for a peace deal with Tehran, and the recent US intelligence cautions that major strikes on Iranian nuclear sites could increase the risk of a wider war breaking out in the Middle East.
Overall, Israel is also still pursuing the broader goal of causing regime change in Iran, one of the recent US intelligence reports says.
The Israeli leader said he has a common strategy with Trump on Gaza and its future, vowing to open the "gates of hell" if all hostages are not released.
Trump this month proposed the US taking ownership of Gaza and moving Palestinians out of the devastated strip permanently, triggering a storm of protest.
"It may have shocked and surprised many," Rubio said in reference to the plan, "but what cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place."
Heavy bombs shipment
Rubio's trip coincided with the US sending a shipment of heavy bombs to Israel. The munitions were sent after Trump's administration last month lifted a hold on the deliveries, Israel's Ministry of Defense said Sunday.
Israel's defense minister Israel Katz said the shipment of MK-84 munitions "represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States," in a statement from his ministry. Katz thanked Trump and the US administration for their "unwavering support."
The new administration's release of the heavy bomb shipments rolled back one of the few Biden-era policies meant to exert leverage on Israel during its war in Gaza. Former President Joe Biden had restricted the delivery of the 2000-pound bombs out of concern they could be used indiscriminately by Israel's military in densely populated areas of Gaza.
Despite causing tensions between Biden and Netanyahu, the move did not portend any major changes in the war. Nor did it significantly improve Biden's standing among critics of the war, who argued for significantly tighter restrictions on American arms sales to Israel.
The head of Gaza's Government Media Office Salama Maroof criticized the US decision to send the heavy bombs. "Instead of sending food, medicine, water, or shelter and building materials to the victims in the Gaza Strip, even with a humanitarian motive, the United States of America, the first democracy in the world and a pioneer of human rights, as it describes itself, supports the criminal occupation army with 1800 heavy MK bombs," Maroof said.
Rubio landed in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, where he was greeted by Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar on the first leg of his trip to the region. He met with Netanyahu at his office in Jerusalem Sunday morning.
It comes a day after three Israeli hostages were released by Hamas as part of a US-mediated ceasefire agreement, although the fragile nature of the truce was underlined again Sunday when Hamas said an Israeli strike killed three police officers in Gaza, in what it called a "serious violation."
Before his meeting with Netanyahu, Secretary Rubio attended mass at the historic Church of the Holy Sepulchre, according to a State Department official.
- CNN
