Foreign Minister Israel Katz departed for Washington on Sunday night to represent Jerusalem at a NATO summit marking the 75th anniversary of the military alliance.
While the title of the conference, which takes place from Tuesday until Thursday, is “Ukraine and transatlantic security,” Katz said before departing that he would bring attention to the Iranian threat.
“I am going to Washington tonight to represent the State of Israel with one clear goal: to warn dozens of leaders and foreign ministers that they must stand up now with full force and determination against Iran,” he said, according to the ICE news portal.
“The Iranian drones and missiles that are attacking Ukraine and threatening Europe are the same Iranian drones and missiles that tried to hit Israel on April 14. We have a common enemy and that is the Iranian regime,” he said.
Katz also discussed the recent elections in Iran, urging the international community to increase pressure on the mullahs, after reformist Masoud Pezeshkian won the Islamic Republic’s second-round presidential vote.
“The Iranian people sent a clear message of demand for change and resistance to the ayatollah regime through the elections—and precisely now the Western world needs to impose severe sanctions on Iran, increase the pressure on the Iranian regime, demand the cancellation of the nuclear program, [that Iran] stop supporting the terrorist organizations, and call the [Islamic] Revolutionary Guards by their real name—the biggest terrorist organization in the world,” he added.
Katz will take part in two events hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden and another event hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He is also expected to meet with his European counterparts on the summit’s sidelines at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, as well as U.S. political leaders, including South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham and New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded on April 4, 1949. Headquartered in Brussels, it currently includes 32 member states, all in Europe except for the United States and Canada.
