US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on the sidelines of the inauguration of Brazilian president.
(AP)
Pompeo gave the assurance as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in Brasilia on the sidelines of the inauguration of Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro.
"The decision the president made on Syria in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside Israel," Pompeo said.
"The counter-Daesh campaign continues, our efforts to counter Iranian aggression continue and our commitment to Middle East stability and protection of Israel continue in the same way before that decision was made," he said.
The fact that the issue was the prime topic of conversation between Pompeo and Netanyahu underlined the uncertainty spawned by Trump's December 19 decision - announced on Twitter - to withdraw the approximately 2,000 US troops from northeast Syria, where they had been battling Deash remnants.
"We have a lot to discuss. We're going to be discussing our - the intense cooperation between Israel and the United States, which will also deal with the questions following the decision, the American decision, on Syria," Netanyahu said.
He said the talks would look at "how to intensify even further our intelligence and operational cooperation in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian aggression in the Middle East."
A US official with Pompeo said the two men "discussed the unacceptable threat that regional aggression and provocation by Iran and its agents pose to Israeli and regional security."
Pompeo "reiterated the United States' commitment to Israel's security and unconditional right to self-defence."Source: trtworld.com
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