Iran and Hezbollah’s assassination attempt can’t be disregarded, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when the two men met in Jerusalem.
“This is an issue of dramatic significance that can not be ignored,” Netanyahu said during their meeting which lasted for two and half hours.
There were no joint statements or press conferences before or after the meeting.
The two men discussed Israel’s expected retaliatory strike against Iran’s ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state on October 1.
Israel is also expected to respond to the Hezbollah drone attack on Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea that damaged his bedroom window. Neither he nor his family were home at the time. Israel is expected to also respond to that attack.
The United States, which helped defend Israel against the last two Iranian attacks, is expected to do so again, should Iran respond to any Israeli retaliatory strike.
“The issue of the Iranian threat and the need for both countries to join forces against it was raised,” the Prime Minister’s Office said, adding that Netanyahu thanked Blinken for the US support “in the fight against Iran's axis of evil and terrorism.”
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the two men “discussed the need to deter further regional aggression from Iran and its proxies” as well as efforts toward that end which the US and its partners are taking.
Reaffirming the US's commitment to Israel
Blinken “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” Miller said.
The Secretary of State also spoke of the importance of a “diplomatic resolution” to the year-long violent conflict between the IDF and the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah, Miller said.
This “includes full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and allows civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes,” he said.
He referenced the UNSC resolution, which set the ceasefire terms that ended the Second Lebanon War.
Pushing for ceasefire
US special envoy Amos Hochstein has been in Lebanon this week to push for a ceasefire, stressing the importance of basing it on Resolution 1701, which bans Hezbollah from the area of southern Lebanon near the Israeli border.
Netanyahu, according to his office, spoke of the importance of the IDF activity in Lebanon and the need for security and political changes there, which would allow for over 60,000 Israelis to return to their northern border communities, which were evacuated last year when the IDF-Hezbollah war began on October 8.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that “the meeting was friendly and productive” and that “an expanded meeting was held afterward, with the participation of both sides' professional echelons.”