strikes to punish Assad, correctly predicting Congress would not grant authorization. Rice and Kerry later worked to pursue a diplomatic solution with Russia instead. This effort led to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118, which compelled Syria to destroy its declared chemical weapons stockpile and join the Chemical Weapons Convention. Under the agreement, 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons were removed from Syria under international observation. However, the Assad regime either obtained or created gas for renewed chemical attacks in 2017. In May 2014, Rice traveled to Israel for meetings with Israeli officials in which nuclear talks with Iran were discussed. Rice's visit, her first as National Security Advisor, came after peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed. The Obama administration made clear that Rice's trip was part of regularly scheduled talks and that the stalled Middle East peace discussions were not on the agenda. Rice was criticized by some for intensifying the Obama administration's conflicts with Israel during her time as National Security Advisor. Dennis Ross, one of Obama's Middle East advisors, criticized Rice's "combative mind-set" as opposed to her predecessor, Tom Donilon, who played a more conciliatory role. Ross wrote that after Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's public reprimand of the Obama administration's Iran negotiations, Rice relayed to Abraham Foxman that, "in her view, the Israeli leader did everything but use 'the N-word' in describing the president." However, in July 2014, Rice expressed support for Israel's right to defend itself during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. She stated: "When countries single out Israel for unfair treatment at the UN, it isn't just a problem for Israel, it is a problem for all of us." In 2015, Rice criticized Netanyahu for agreeing to speak to Congress about Iran's nuclear program without coordinating with the Obama administration. She negotiated a new memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Israel in 2016 for $38 billion in military assistance, the largest such package in Israel's history. The Obama administration supported the Saudi-and Emirati-led intervention in Yemen and blockade of Yemen, but Rice opposed a coalition attack on the port city of Al Hudaydah and personally called UAE crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed to stop the planned offensive. Africa Rice supported South Sudanese independence and initial U.S. aid to the government of president Salva Kiir Mayardit. When the South Sudanese Civil War broke out in 2013 between President Kiir's forces and forces led