Israel and Arab countries that share its worries about Iran should build up their military capabilities under Washington's aegis, the Israeli defense minister said on Tuesday ahead of a visit to the region by US President Joe Biden.
Biden's July 13-16 tour will include Israel, the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia, a US official said. Biden will attend a summit with the leaders of Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.
Iran nuclear program, and so-far fruitless international negotiations to revive a 2015 deal capping it, are among issues likely to be on the agenda.
In a speech, Defense Minister Benny Gantz cited Israel's security ties with Gulf Arab states that drew closer to it under a 2020 US-sponsored diplomatic drive, as well as Egypt and Jordan, and said there were efforts to expand such cooperation.
"In the face of Iranian belligerence ... what is needed is not just cooperation, but also a regional force build-up, with American leadership, which would strengthen all parties involved," he said, according to an official transcript.
"On this, we are working continually, for the sake of the security of Israel's citizens," Gantz said.
Speaking at an event on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Israel "will not hesitate to activate its power anywhere in the world to protect its citizens", alluding to a travel advisory to Istanbul because of what Israel said was a threat of Iranian attempts to kill or abduct vacationing Israelis.
"Israel's security arms are doing everything to thwart such attacks, and to preemptively neutralize those dispatching the terrorists, and the dispatchers’ dispatchers too," Bennett said.
