US-Israel Ties: US embassy move, Iran deal in Pompeo-Netanyahu talks

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02:18

Now to the Middle East, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem Sunday - the middle leg of a tour that includes stops in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. On the agenda: the US Embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the Iran nuclear deal. CGTN's Stephanie Freid reports from Jerusalem.

It's sounding more and more like U.S. President Trump will cancel the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

MIKE POMPEO US SECRETARY OF STATE "Regarding the JCPOA, President Trump made it pretty clear, this deal is a very flawed. It's pretty straight forward."

Signed by Iran and 6 world leaders including China and the US, the deal is meant to keep Iran from building nuclear weapons. Israel has stood against the deal from the start saying it's not tough enough.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER "If people thought that Iran's aggression would be moderated as a result of signing the (nuclear) deal, the opposite has happened and Iran is trying to gobble up one country after the other. Iran must be stopped, its quest for nuclear bombs must be stopped, its aggression must be stopped. And we are committed to stopping it together."

During their Jerusalem meeting Sunday, Secretary of State Pompeo and Prime Minister Netanyahu also discussed Israel's claim of growing Iran aggression in the region. Last week Israel's Ambassador to the UN claimed there are currently around eighty thousand Iran-backed operatives inside Syria. That, says Israel's government, is unacceptable.

STEPHANIE FREID JERUSALEM "Since Israel struck a military base inside Syria earlier in April, Tehran and Jerusalem have been trading threats. Israel says the base is being used by Iran to transport weapons to Iranian backed Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon."

Both Iran and Israel are vowing to strike each other. srael's military is on high alert. During his current tour, Secretary Pompeo is also talking about cutting Iran's ballistic missile capability.

STEPHANIE FREID, CGTN, JERUSALEM.