The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will push his UK counterpart, Theresa May, to back his call for a tougher international stance on Iran when the pair meet in Downing Street. Corbyn urged the prime minister to tell her Israeli counterpart that the government stands “unequivocally behind the rights of the Palestinian people, along with the many who support them in Israel”. “We are at the start of a significant diplomatic period for the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said on Sunday. An Iranian ballistic missile test last weekend drew a quick round of new US sanctions against Iran, with Trump warning Tehran it was “playing with fire”. After eight years of the Obama administration, which pushed back against Netanyahu’s concerns about Iran, the Israeli prime minister now believes he has a far more sympathetic audience in the shape of the convergence of May, Trump and Turnbull.

Source: The Guardian February 05, 2017 16:55 UTC