WarSclerotic

Anyone who wants additional proof that Israel is a rising world power should see the great admiration for Israel in Brazil, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. Netanyahu arrived in Brazil last week to attend the inauguration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaroand hold meetings with other South American leaders.

On Friday, Bolsonaro awarded Netanyahu the National Order of the Southern Cross, the most prestigious medal Brazil awards foreign dignitaries.

“When the president of Brazil gave me the highest honor that Brazil grants foreign leaders, I accepted it on your behalf,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language message to Israelis posted on his Twitter account.

“I received from him the most important national decoration in Brazil. We will strengthen our bilateral relations in economics, security and technology. A true friend. A new era in relations between Israel and Brazil,” Netanyahu tweeted.

Netanyahu also held a tripartite meeting with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Hernandez asked for Israel’s help in “opening doors” for Honduras in Washington, as well as promoting a number of issues in the Trump administration. Hernandez said that in exchange for Israeli help on those matters, he would consider moving the Honduran embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Israel does not currently maintain an embassy in Honduras.

Netanyahu tweeted that he held “a great meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in which we further strengthened cooperation between Israel and the U.S. in a variety of areas.”

Netanyahu held another meeting in Brasilia with Chilean President Sebastian Piñera and welcomed the establishment of direct flights between Israel and Chile. Netanyahu and Piñera agreed to work together to work together to route the flight route through Africa, shortening the time it takes to fly between Israel and Chile.

The United States and Israel vowed on Tuesday to continue cooperating over Syria and in countering Iran in the Middle East, even as President Donald Trump plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the Brazilian capital that he planned to discuss how to intensify intelligence and operations cooperation in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian “aggression.”

In his first public comments on Trump’s decision, Pompeo said it “in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside Israel” and that campaigns to counter Islamic State and Iranian aggression would continue.

“The counter-ISIS campaign continues, our efforts to counter Iranian aggression continue and our commitment to Middle East stability and the protection of Israel continues in the same way it did before that decision was made,” he said.

Trump announced last month that he planned to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, declaring that they had succeeded in their mission to defeat Islamic State and were no longer needed in the country.

In making the announcement, Trump ignored the advice of top national security aides and did so without consulting lawmakers or U.S. allies participating in anti-Islamic State operations. The decision prompted Jim Mattis to resign as defense secretary.

“We have a lot to discuss,” said Netanyahu, who like Pompeo was in the Brazilian capital for the inauguration of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil’s new president.

“We’re going to be discussing our, the intense cooperation between Israel and the United States which will also deal with the questions following the decision, the American decision, on Syria and how to intensify even further our intelligence and operational cooperation in Syria and elsewhere to block Iranian aggression in the Middle East.”

Netanyahu said Israel was very appreciative of the “strong … unequivocal support” Pompeo gave Israel’s “efforts at self-defense against Syria” in the past few days.

State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said Pompeo and Netanyahu “discussed the unacceptable threat that regional aggression and provocation by Iran and its agents poses to Israeli and regional security” and Pompeo reiterated the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security and right to self-defense.

Netanyahu said last month after Trump’s announcement that Israel would escalate its fight against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.