Israel and the United States must think and act together to face the changes sweeping the Middle East, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday after meeting President Shimon Peres.
Mrs Clinton, who arrived late on Sunday after two days of talks with the new leadership in Egypt, hailed a “moment of great change and transformation in the region.”
“It is a time of uncertainty but also of opportunity. It is a chance to advance our shared goals of security, stability, peace and democracy,” she said after talks with Mr Peres focusing on Egypt, Syria, Iran’s nuclear programme and peace efforts with the Palestinians.
“It is in moments like these that friends like us have to think together, act together,” she said.
On the last leg of a 13-day, nine-nation tour, Mrs Clinton held talks with her Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman as well as with Mr Peres and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
She updated each of them on her discussions with Egypt’s newly elected President Mohamed Morsi and military leader Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
And she met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before heading back to Washington.
“Your visit comes at an extremely interesting time, the whole Middle East is going through a major transition,” Mr Barak told her at the outset of their talks at the David’s Citadel hotel in Jerusalem. In response, Mrs Clinton reiterated the need for Israel and Washington to work together.
“We are at a time of such historic change, really unprecedented, and we have to work together to face challenges and to hopefully seize some of the opportunities,” she told him in brief remarks to the press.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Peres also discussed Iran’s nuclear programme which Israel, Washington and much of the West believes is a cover for a weapons drive.
Israel says a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat to the Jewish state and has refused to rule out a military strike on its nuclear facilities.
Mrs Clinton said the Obama administration was “committed to building and maintaining a wide coalition to deny Iran the ability to acquire nuclear weapons,” and pledged that the tough economic sanctions imposed on Tehran “will continue to become harsher,” Mr Peres’s office said.
Mr Peres, who is known to favour diplomacy over the idea of a military strike, expressed confidence in Washington’s tough stance, saying that sanctions “are beginning to have their impact and they are the right start.”
“We appreciate very much your position. We trust its depth and dedication and determination and we feel partners of this coalition,” he told her.
The two also discussed diplomatic efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria and the deadlock in efforts to restart peace negotiations with the Palestinians.