JERUSALEM: Top US diplomat Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Wednesday to counter Iranian “aggression” as the two met in Jerusalem just weeks ahead of Israel’s elections.
Pompeo was on a regional tour focused largely on Iran, but the meeting and his warm words on Netanyahu’s leadership will likely be seen as support from US President Donald Trump’s administration amid the Israeli premier’s re-election fight.
Netanyahu, facing a stiff challenge from a centrist alliance in April 9 polls whilst under threat of indictment for corruption, will next week visit Washington, where he will meet twice with Trump.
Pompeo’s visit offered the right-wing premier an opportunity to burnish his security and diplomatic credentials — both key planks of his re-election campaign.
In comments after Pompeo’s arrival, Netanyahu said Trump’s pressure on Israel’s main enemy Iran was already having an effect, referring to his withdrawal from the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers and Washington’s reimposition of sanctions.
“We need to increase it, we need to expand it, and together the United States and Israel are working in close coordination to roll back Iranian aggression in the region and around the world,” he said.
Pompeo noted a Middle East conference in Warsaw last month that included Arab nations as well as Israel, saying the discussions involved efforts “to stop Iran’s regional rampage” among other issues.
The US secretary of state also spoke of Iranian calls for Israel’s destruction.
“With such threats a daily reality of Israeli life, we maintain our unparallelled commitment to Israel’s security and firmly support your right to defend yourself,” he said.
Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to keep Iran from entrenching itself militarily in neighboring Syria, where the Islamic republic backs President Bashar Assad’s regime.
Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes there against what it says are Iranian and Hezbollah targets.
“There is no limitation to our freedom of action, and we appreciate very much the fact that the United States backs up our actions as we do them,” Netanyahu said.
Pompeo’s stay in Jerusalem also included a four-way meeting with Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday night.
The discussions were to include plans to build a natural gas pipeline from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe.
Pompeo, who later travels to Lebanon, kicked off his regional tour in Kuwait where he met Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.
He is pushing for a greater role for the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), a US-sponsored Arab NATO-style bloc aimed at uniting Washington’s Arab allies against Tehran.
Pompeo said before his arrival that his trip to Israel had nothing to do with politics, saying the “relationship matters, no matter who the leaders are.”
No meetings with Netanyahu’s opponents are scheduled, and the secretary of state will not meet with representatives of the Palestinian Authority.
Trump’s administration has taken a series of steps that the Palestinian Authority has deemed so hostile that it now refuses any contact with the US administration.
They included cutting most US aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
President Donald Trump’s decision in December 2017 to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israeli delighted Netanyahu’s government.
But it enraged Palestinians, who want to make the eastern, mainly Palestinian part of the city the capital of their future state.
Pompeo’s two-day visit to Jerusalem also includes a stop at the new US embassy, which was transferred from Tel Aviv on Trump’s orders last year.
A shift in semantics and policy has also marked the Trump term.
The US has ceased to refer to the Golan Heights as “Israeli-occupied” and instead calls the territory seized from Syria “controlled” by Israel — a change seen by some as a prelude to US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau.
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Netanyahu and Pompeo vow to counter Iranian aggression
Netanyahu and Pompeo vow to counter Iranian aggression
- Netanyahu said Trump’s pressure on Israel’s main enemy Iran was already having an effect
- Netanyahu reiterated his pledge to keep Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria
Turkiye to forge on with tight economic policy, some fine-tuning, VP Yilmaz says
ISTANBUL: Turkiye is committed to carrying on its tight economic policies in order to cool inflation, and though it may fine-tune the program it will not change course, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said in comments embargoed to Friday.
“There is no plan to pause our program,” Yilmaz said at a briefing with reporters in Istanbul on Thursday. “All programs are dynamic, and adjustments can always be made.”
Yilmaz, who plays a key role overseeing economic policy at the presidency, said any such adjustments would aim to support production, investment and exports while moderating consumption.
Turkiye has pursued tight monetary and fiscal policies for more than two years in order to reduce price pressure, leading to high financing and borrowing costs that have weighed on businesses and households. Inflation has eased slowly but steadily over the last year but remains elevated at 31 percent annually.
Last month, Is Bank CEO Hakan Aran warned that focusing solely on one target — inflation — could create side effects, suggesting a “pause and restart” might be healthy once the program achieves certain targets.
Yılmaz said the government expects improvements in inflation in the first quarter, which should reflect to market expectations for year-end inflation around 23 percent. The government projects inflation to dip as far as 16 percent by year end, within a 13-19 percent range, and falling to 9 percent in 2027. The central bank forecasts inflation between 13-19 percent by end-2026.
Yilmaz noted inflation fell by nearly 45 points despite pressure from elevated food prices, hit by agricultural frost and drought.
The agricultural sector is expected to support growth and help ease price rises this year, which could help achieve official inflation targets, he said.
Yilmaz said the government wants to avoid a rapid drop in inflation that could hurt economic growth, jobs and social stability.
Turkiye’s economic program was established in 2023 after years of unorthodox easy money that aimed to stoke growth but that sent inflation soaring and the lira plunging. The program aims to dislodge high inflation expectations while boosting production and exports, in order to address long-standing current account deficits.
The central bank, having raised interest rates as high as 50 percent in 2024, eased policy through most of last year, bringing the key rate down to 38 percent.
Asked whether lower rates could trigger an exit from the lira currency, Yilmaz said: “What matters is real interest rates. Lowering rates as inflation falls does not affect real rates, so we do not expect such an impact.”
He added that the government will strengthen mechanisms that selectively support companies while improving overall financial conditions.
“There is no plan to pause our program,” Yilmaz said at a briefing with reporters in Istanbul on Thursday. “All programs are dynamic, and adjustments can always be made.”
Yilmaz, who plays a key role overseeing economic policy at the presidency, said any such adjustments would aim to support production, investment and exports while moderating consumption.
Turkiye has pursued tight monetary and fiscal policies for more than two years in order to reduce price pressure, leading to high financing and borrowing costs that have weighed on businesses and households. Inflation has eased slowly but steadily over the last year but remains elevated at 31 percent annually.
Last month, Is Bank CEO Hakan Aran warned that focusing solely on one target — inflation — could create side effects, suggesting a “pause and restart” might be healthy once the program achieves certain targets.
Yılmaz said the government expects improvements in inflation in the first quarter, which should reflect to market expectations for year-end inflation around 23 percent. The government projects inflation to dip as far as 16 percent by year end, within a 13-19 percent range, and falling to 9 percent in 2027. The central bank forecasts inflation between 13-19 percent by end-2026.
Yilmaz noted inflation fell by nearly 45 points despite pressure from elevated food prices, hit by agricultural frost and drought.
The agricultural sector is expected to support growth and help ease price rises this year, which could help achieve official inflation targets, he said.
Yilmaz said the government wants to avoid a rapid drop in inflation that could hurt economic growth, jobs and social stability.
Turkiye’s economic program was established in 2023 after years of unorthodox easy money that aimed to stoke growth but that sent inflation soaring and the lira plunging. The program aims to dislodge high inflation expectations while boosting production and exports, in order to address long-standing current account deficits.
The central bank, having raised interest rates as high as 50 percent in 2024, eased policy through most of last year, bringing the key rate down to 38 percent.
Asked whether lower rates could trigger an exit from the lira currency, Yilmaz said: “What matters is real interest rates. Lowering rates as inflation falls does not affect real rates, so we do not expect such an impact.”
He added that the government will strengthen mechanisms that selectively support companies while improving overall financial conditions.
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