- Netanyahu says visit to Israel by top US diplomat Marco Rubio underscored the strength of ties between the allies
TEL AVIV: Top US diplomat Marco Rubio has arrived in Israel, where he is set to meet its PM Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of Tel Aviv’s strike on Qatar last week, Al Jazeera reports.
Before boarding the plane, Rubio told reporters that while US President Donald Trump was “not happy” about the strike, it was “not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis.”
“The president wants this to be finished with. And finished with meaning 48 hostages released all at once. Hamas is no longer a threat, so we can move on to the next phase, which is, how do you rebuild Gaza,” he was quoted as saying.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Israel for a visit during which he will meet with Israeli leadership to discuss the war on Gaza and other regional affairs, as well as a possible recognition of an independent Palestinian state by major European powers at the UNGA later this month, a move criticised by the US, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu says US an ‘extraordinary friend’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that a visit to Israel by top US diplomat Marco Rubio underscored the strength of ties between the allies, days after an unprecedented Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar drew broad criticism, AFP reports.
The attack has put renewed strain on efforts towards a truce in Gaza, and Rubio acknowledged that the United States and Israel were “going to have to talk about” its impact.
Rubio, wearing a Jewish kippa, offered prayers at Jerusalem’s sacred Western Wall alongside Netanyahu and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an AFP correspondent reported.
Netanyahu, calling Rubio an “extraordinary friend” of Israel, said the diplomat’s visit shows “the strength of the Israeli-American alliance”.
Israel’s standing in Gulf lower than after 2010 killing of Hamas official in Dubai: Israeli official
Meanwhile, an “anonymous” Israeli official has told the Kan public broadcaster that Israel’s standing in the Gulf was now at a lower point than it was after the killing of a Hamas official in the United Arab Emirates in 2010, an operation widely blamed on the Mossad, The Times of Israel reports.
“Israel’s regional situation is worse than after the elimination of Mabhouh,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying in the wake of Israel’s attack on Qatar last week.
In 2010, Hamas’s Mahmoud Mabhouh, a “co-founder of Hamas’s military wing”, was found dead in a hotel room in Dubai. “The killing led to a crisis in the then-secret, but growing, ties between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi,” the report added.
