JERUSALEM (AFP ) — US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday had a long phone conversation about strategic threats posed by Iran, the premier’s office said.

“The two leaders spoke at length about the dangers arising from the nuclear deal with Iran and Iranian aggression in the (Middle East) region and the need to work together to deal with those dangers,” it said in a statement.

The landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was reached in July 2015 and went into effect in January last year. It saw Iran agree to dismantle part of its nuclear programme, surrender enriched fuel and submit to international inspections in exchange for the partial lifting of sanctions.

But critics of the agreement, particularly Netanyahu, argue that when some of the clauses of the deal expire in 10 and 15 years, it will leave Tehran on the threshold of building a bomb.

Trump too is a vociferous opponent of the treaty.

The US president told Netanyahu the nuclear agreement was “one of the worst deals” he had ever seen when the two met at the White House last month.

Trump said his administration had already imposed new sanctions on Iran, and he would do more to prevent Iran from ever developing a nuclear weapon.

Washington last month imposed new sanctions on individuals and companies supporting Iran’s ballistic missile programme and on its elite Revolutionary Guards.

During Monday’s call, Netanyahu also thanked Trump for taking a strong stand in his speech to Congress last week against a string of anti-Semitic incidents in the United States, the statement said.