U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin praised investment opportunities in Israel on Sunday and said Washington would increase its participation in infrastructure projects there.
"We have a very important relationship with Israel. This is really a great place for investments, particularly technology investments," Mnuchin, launching a Middle East tour, told reporters in Jerusalem at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel and the United States have strong trade and business ties, particularly in the high-tech sector. Most of the large U.S. high-tech firms including Google, Amazon , Microsoft and IBM, have research and development centers in Israel.
In May, Intel Corp submitted plans to expand its production operations in Israel, with the Israeli government saying the U.S. chipmaker would invest about $5 billion. Intel's exports from Israel amounted to $3.6 billion in 2017.
"We are going to make sure we do more infrastructure investments here," Mnuchin added.
Netanyahu, for his part, used the press conference as an opportunity to reiterate his perpetual warning that the "aggressive Iranian regime" has exploited the 2015 nuclear deal to "further its aggression to unbelievable heights."
"That is why we welcome President [Donald] Trump's bold and courageous decision to get out of the JCPOA and the focus of our discussions today, as we just discussed, is ramping up the pressure against the world's foremost terrorist regime, the aggressive regime in Tehran," Netanyahu said.
