Israel expects the U.S. President-elect, Donald Trump, to take a hard line against Iran and its nuclear ambitions if the region must enjoy relative peace.
Israel’s Energy Minister Eli Cohen, disclosed this on Wednesday in an interview with Reuters, saying the country expects the stability experienced during Trump’s first term in office.
Cohen said Trump has been nominating senior staff who “certainly support determined action against Iran.”
He added, “The period of Trump’s previous administration was characterised by greater regional stability.
“Towards the end of his presidency, the sanctions on Iran were close to making Iran to change its behaviour on the nuclear issue.
“So we certainly hope and believe that the Trump administration’s policy will continue that, and first and foremost, we see the most central issue is acting assertively against Iran.
“We think [Trump] is targeting the bottom line. To rein in the threatening actors and create new regional alliances that are very important,” he said.
Cohen further stated that Israel is closer to reaching an arrangement over the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah than it has been since the start of the war.
The minister however insisted that Israel must retain freedom to act inside Lebanon should any deal be violated.
“I think we are at a point [where] we are closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war.
“We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel. That’s how we will be, and so that is certainly how we will act,” Cohen said.