Netanyahu: ‘Israel backs US strikes on Islamic State’

Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his country’s support for the United States’ plan to strike the radical group Islamic State.

“Israel fully supports Obama’s call for a united action against ISIS,” Israel’s Prime Minister said at the annual conference held by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya.

Speaking on the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks conducted by al-Qaida that killed nearly 3,000 in the United States, Netanyahu warned of the existing threat of radical Islamist terrorism.

The premier cautioned that the groups Hamas, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Islamic State and Boko Haram all stem from “branches of the same poisonous tree”.

Netanyahu pointed to the new alliances being formed by Arab states in the region as a result of the threat of extremist Islamist terrorism, which he predicted will eventually perish.

“As a result of this they [the Arab states] are re-evaluating their relationships with Israel and realising that Israel is not their enemy, but their ally,” he said.

“I’m confident that militant Islam will perish,” he added.