US ‘making sure Iran never has nuclear weapons,’ vows treasury chief in Jerusalem

Netanyahu touted Israel’s ties with the US under the Trump administration during a meeting on Sunday with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Jerusalem.

By TPS

The US-Israel alliance under President Trump has never been stronger, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday as he met with United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Jerusalem.

“I appreciate that alliance and the strengthening of our relations in every field: in intelligence, in security cooperation, in trade, in economic cooperation and of course, in our common approach to preventing aggression in this region. And this is what is going to occupy a great deal of our discussions today – how to stop Iran’s dual aggression: Its quest for a nuclear arsenal and its quest for a conventional arsenal and its plans of conquest in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said.

He added, “[The JCPOA nuclear deal] effectively enabled Iran to pursue both paths of aggression: rather than blocking their path to atomic bomb, it actually paved their way to an entire nuclear arsenal. And it gave them, to boot, billions, hundreds of billions of dollars in cash, in credits, in investments, which enabled them to fund their growing aggression in the region. We see that aggression in every part in the Middle East. We see it of course in our northern border in their attempts to entrench militarily in Syria, their attempts to bring deadliest weapons to Lebanon, to launch aggression through their proxies in Gaza and elsewhere.”

Netanyhau warned, “We have seen in recent years that pressure is the only thing that arrests the forward movement of the Iranian nuclear program and pressure is the only thing that rolls back Iran’s aggression in the region.”

Mnuchin told reporters that the primary purpose of his trip was “to make sure that there are never nuclear weapons in Iran, not now, not in 10 years time and not ever.”

During his visit, Mnuchin will meet with Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon and the two are expected to announce a review of the tax treaty between Israel and the US in view of tax reforms introduced by President Trump.

Mnuchin will also attend a session of the US-Israel Joint Economic Development Group and visit several local technology companies.

“We have a very important relationship