Conversations ‘designed to further tighten strong alliance between Israel and the US,’ PM says in statement; Dermer, Herzog in Washington as attempts made to end fighting in north

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald Trump see “eye-to-eye” on the Iranian threat, the premier said in a video statement on Sunday, amid indications of an imminent Iranian response to Israel’s recent retaliatory strike.

Netanyahu also revealed that he and Trump had spoken three times since the latter’s American presidential election triumph last week.

The conversations “were designed to further tighten the strong alliance between Israel and the US,” said the premier. “We see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its components, and the danger posed by it. We also see the great opportunities before Israel, in the expansion of peace, and in other realms.”

Iran has vowed a “punishing” reprisal for unprecedented Israeli airstrikes against it on October 26, which Jerusalem said took out the Islamic Republic’s air defenses and missile production capabilities.

Israel’s strikes were in retaliation for Iran’s October 1 barrage of 200 ballistic missiles, which forced most of the country to take shelter and killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank. Days earlier, Israel killed Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime head of Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. Israel also killed Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas — another of Iran’s beneficiaries — in Tehran.

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