Secretary Mattis underscores US commitment to Israeli military edge

At his first meeting with Israeli’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis underscored the US commitment to Israel’s security and its qualitative military edge, a Pentagon spokesman said after the meeting Friday, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“They agreed to continue close collaboration and consultation on a range of bilateral defense activities and initiatives,” she added.

The conference organizers rearranged the agenda for Sunday to avoid Lieberman and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appearing on the same panel platform on “Old Crises, New Middle East,” along with the Saudi and Turkish foreign ministers. The agenda was replaced with separate statements an hour apart.