US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran must immediately stop its financial and military support for "terrorists and militas" and he reiterated that it never be permitted to possess atomic arms. "Most importantly, the United States and Israel can declare with one voice that Iran must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon - never, ever - and must cease its deadly funding, training and equipping of terrorists and militias, and it must cease immediately," Trump said in public remarks at a meeting in occupied Jerusalem with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. US President Donald Trump arrived in Israel on Monday on the second leg of his first overseas trip since entering office and said he had new reasons to hope for peace and stability to the Middle East after his visit to Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu and his wife Sara, as well as President Reuven Rivlin and members of the Israeli cabinet, were at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion airport to greet Trump and first lady Melania in a red carpet ceremony. "During my travels in recent days, I have found new reasons for hope," Trump said in a brief speech on arrival. "We have before us a rare opportunity to bring security and stability and peace to this region and its people, defeating terrorism and creating a future of harmony, prosperity and peace, but we can only get there working together. There is no other way," he said. Netanyahu said Israel shared Trump's commitment to peace — but he also repeated his right-wing government's political and security demands of the Palestinians, including recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. "May your first trip to our region prove to be a historic milestone on the path towards reconciliation and peace," Netanyahu said. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters en route to Tel Aviv that any three-way meeting between Trump, Netanyahu and Abbas was for "a later date". Trump has vowed to do whatever is necessary to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians — something he has called "the ultimate deal" — but has given little indication of how he could revive negotiations that collapsed in 2014. When he met Abbas this month in Washington, he stopped shortly of explicitly recommitting his administration to a two-state solution to the decades-old conflict, a long-standing foundation of US policy. He has since spoken in support of Palestinian "self-determination". Trump has also opted against an immediate move of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a longtime demand of Israel. A senior administration official told Reuters last week that Trump remained committed to his campaign pledge to ultimately relocate the embassy, but would not announce such a move during this trip: "We're having very good discussions with all parties and, as long as we see that happening, then we don't intend to do anything that we think could upset those discussions." On Sunday, Israel authorised some economic concessions to the Palestinians that it said would improve civilian life in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and were intended to respond to Trump's request for "confidence-building steps". The United States welcomed the move but the Palestinians said they had heard such promises before. Trump will have visited significant centers of Islam, Judaism and Christianity by the end of his trip, a point that his aides say bolsters his argument that the fight against militancy is a battle between "good and evil". — Reuters
