Netanyahu Seeks Joint Response To Iran Missile Test In London Talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street in London on February 6

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on "responsible" nations to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump and impose sanctions in Iran.

Netanyahu made the appeal as he met with British counterpart, Theresa May, in London on January 6.

"Iran seeks to annihilate Israel, it seeks to conquer the Middle East, it threatens Europe, it threatens the West, it threatens the world. And it offers provocation after provocation," he told May ahead of their meeting.

The meeting comes just days after the Trump administration imposed new sanctions against Iran after the country carried out a medium-range ballistic-missile test.

Netanyahu said before his talks with May that he wants to craft a joint response with Britain and the United States to the missile test and that the three countries must work together to stand up against Iran's "extraordinary aggression, gall, and defiance."

The Israeli prime minister told his British counterpart that he welcomes the new sanctions against Iran and that "other nations should follow suit, certainly responsible nations."

"I'd like to talk to you about how we can ensure that Iran's aggression does not go unanswered," he said.

Netanyahu is a vocal opponent of the 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers on Iran's nuclear program. Trump also opposes the accord, having called it a "disaster."

A spokeswoman for May said that the British prime minister "made clear" in talks with Netanyahu that Britain supports the deal, which eases sanctions on Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

"What happens now is that [the deal] needs to be properly enforced, and we also need to be alert to Iran's pattern of destabilizing activity in the region," the spokeswoman was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The Trump administration said the new sanctions announced on February 3 were in response to the ballistic-missile test and Iran's "material support to various terrorist groups," but that Washington continued to maintain its commitments under the nuclear deal.

On February 6 in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow disagrees with comments by Trump that Iran was a terrorist state, but added that differences between Russia and the United States should not stop the two countries from building a mutually beneficial relationship.

"It's not a secret that Moscow and Washington's views on many international issues are diametrically opposed," he said.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said on February 6 that Tehran is in the "final stages" of preparing a list of U.S. individuals and companies to be targeted with sanctions in response to the "unjust" actions of the Trump administration.

With reporting by Bloomberg, Reuters, dpa, TASS, and Press TV