Trump Says Israel And Arabs United By Threat Of Iran
Image by Getty Images
President Trump said on Monday that shared concern about Iran was driving Israel and many Arab states closer and demanded that Tehran immediately cease military and financial backing of “terrorists and militias.”
In stressing threats from Iran, Trump echoed a theme laid out during weekend meetings in Saudi Arabia about the Islamic Republic’s growing regional influence and financial muscle.
Trump has also vowed to do whatever is necessary to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians but has given little indication of how he could revive negotiations.
He focused firmly on Iran in talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem.
“What’s happened with Iran has brought many of the parts of the Middle East toward Israel,” Trump said in public remarks at a meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
Trump spoke of forging a regional coalition to counter what he described as Shi’ite Muslim Iran’s involvement in conflicts in the region, rather than renewed efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
“No matter where we go, we see the signs of Iran,” Trump said in comments to Netanyahu.
Israel shares the antipathy many Arab states have towards Iran, seeing the Islamic Republic as a threat to its existence.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
