“Strong cooperation with close allies like Israel is critical to our efforts to counter Iran’s destabilizing and malign activities throughout the Middle East and throughout the world,” newly installed United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday as he stood alongside Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following face to face talks at military headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Echoing Netanyahu’s warnings about Iran’s regional ambitions, the hard-line for CIA director added: “We remain deeply concerned about the escalation of Iran’s threats to Israel and the region and Iran’s ambition to dominate the Middle East remains.

“The United States is with Israel in this fight and we strongly support israel’s sovereign right to defend itself,” he added.

Calling Pompeo “a true friend of Israel,” Netanyahu thanks the Secretary of State for his and President Donald Trump’s position on thwarting Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“I appreciate the president’s leadership and your position on stopping Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons. I appreciate the president’s and your position on stopping Iran’s aggression in the region. That aggression has grown many fold since the singing of the Iranian deal,” Netanyahu said.

Pompeo said with regard to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear deal signed by the administration of former President Barack Obama, that Trump’s position was clear, the deal is flawed and if he “can’t fix it he’s going to withdraw from the deal.”

Taking a swipe at Obama’s Iran policy, Pompeo added that, “unlike the previous administration,  the Trump administration has a comprehensive strategy designed to counter the whole array of threats emanating from Iran.

That included, he said, “the broad array of non-nuclear threats from Iran such as its missile systems, support for Hezbollah and the importation of thousands of proxy fighters into Syria.”