Rubio sets sights on Iran in Jerusalem visit

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Iran is the single greatest threat to the Middle East in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Rubio said: "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 that call this region home is Iran.

"And by Iran I mean the ayatollahs, by Iran I mean its regime, a regime who by the way, its people don’t support. The people of Iran are victims of that regime."

Netanyahu, who has long campaigned for harsher policies on Iran from global powers, warning of the threat the country's nuclear program poses to the region, welcomed the comments which echo his own years-long campaign against Tehran.

“Israel and America stand shoulder to shoulder in countering the threat of Iran," he 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.”

Addressing the Gaza war against Iran-backed militants, Hamas, Netanyahu said Israel had dealt a significant blow to Tehran over the past 16 months, adding that with the support of Trump, "I have no doubt we can and will finish the job".

He also said Israel had weakened the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in southern Lebanon and had hit hundreds of targets in Syria to prevent a new Iranian-backed front opening up against Israel.

"Now, if any other force believes that Israel will permit other hostile forces to use Syria as a base of operations against us, they are gravely mistaken," Netanyahu said.