Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a speech to Israeli lawmakers, declared Jerusalem’s relations with Washington as the strongest in history, while hailing the Trump Administration’s commitment to bolster bilateral relations in many sectors of cooperation. In an address to the opening of the Knesset’s winter session, the Prime Minister voiced Israel’s gratitude to the United States and its commitment to the security of the Jewish state. In his words, “The Trump administration is not only committed to ensuring Israel’s security, President Trump initiated the cooperation between us [Israel] -military, intelligence, economic and technological cooperation and the U.S. political support of Israel in the U.N has hit new heights. The alliance [between the U.S. and Israel] is stronger than ever before. We have never had this kind of cooperation with the world’s leading nation.” With regard to Israel’s regional challenges, Prime Minister Netanyahu underscored his government’s continued focus to confront the Islamic Republic’s malign activities across the Middle East. He said that while Jerusalem backs its words with actions in dealing with Iran’s aggression, the United States under the Trump Administration backs Israel in confronting the Ayatollah regime economically around the world. “Members of the Knesset, I do not for one moment take my eye of the agenda board. And the most important goal is to block the Iranian aggression, a nation that vows to destroy Israel. As Israeli Prime Minister, I stood alone in front of all the world’s leaders, against an agreement that allowed Iran to obtain a nuclear arsenal within a few years. I warned that Iran will use the JCPOA’s funds to open new war fronts across the Middle East.” / “Our determination in dealing with Iran’s aggression is backed with actions. We act against the Iranian regime militarily in Syria. we are acting against them at this very day and President Trump is acting against this regime economically around the world. This is an opportunity to thank again President Trump for his brave decision to withdraw from the dangerous nuclear deal with Iran and re-impose economic sanctions on Iran, objectives I worked on achieving for many years,” Netanyahu said.
Meanwhile in the Islamic Republic’s capital, Tehran, President Hassan Rouhani announced that the Iranian regime “has extensive plans to counter” what he termed as “the enemies’ psychological and economic warfare” against his country. While the Iranian leader claimed that his country is “not in a critical situation,” he confessed to the fact that the conditions the Islamic Republic had deteriorated into “are not normal either.” In a speech to Iranian scholars marking the beginning of the academic year at Tehran University, President Rouhani also took the opportunity to accuse the United States of seeking ‘regime change’ in Iran, an attempt – he pledged – would utterly fail. According to the Iranian President, “What’s their goal? I’ll say the final goal now. They started with a psychological war. Economic war is their middle-term goal. A war for the issue of the efficiency of the system is the third goal. Reducing the legitimacy of the system is their final goal. When they say getting rid of, regime change in their own words, how does regime change happen? Through reducing legitimacy, otherwise a regime doesn’t change.” The comments by President Rouhani were made as the Iranian economy continues to deteriorate amid a second batch of looming sanctions that will be enforced by the United States on the 4th of November, with the aim of targeting Tehran’s oil and banking sectors.