Marco Rubio speaks after he is sworn in as Secretary of State by US Vice President JD Vance at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

i24 News – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday in Jerusalem, hailing the “full cooperation and coordination” between the Israeli and US governments.

“We have a common strategy and we can’t always share in details this strategy with the public, including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released, until the last one of them,” Netanyahu said.

He stated that Israel is committed to preventing Hamas from staying in power and posing a threat to Israel ever again.

“Israel and America stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat of Iran,” Netanyahu said. “We agree that the ayatollahs must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. We also agreed that Iran’s aggression in the region has to be rolled back.”

“The common theme in all these challenges is Iran,” Rubio said. “It is the single greatest source of instability in the region, behind every terrorist group, behind every act of violence, behind every destabilizing activity, behind everything that threatens peace and stability for the millions of people who call this region home, is Iran.”

Rubio added that “there can never be a nuclear Iran, a nuclear Iran that could then hold itself immune from pressure and from action. That can never happen.”