Biden visits Israel on first Middle East tour as US president

US-Palestinian ties have been strained by the killing of Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, depicted here in a mural on Israel's controversial barrier

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday kicked off a Middle East tour in Israel where both sides vowed to deepen the Jewish state's integration in the region as they face their common foe Iran.

Biden -- whose first regional tour since taking office will also take him to Saudi Arabia -- pledged strong backing for Israel, which has forged ties with several Arab states in recent years and hopes to do so with Riyadh as well.

Israel's caretaker prime minister Yair Lapid said that "we will discuss building a new security and economy architecture with the nations of the Middle East", following US-brokered accords in 2020 with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.

Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday will be the major focus of the tour, after he branded the oil-rich kingdom a "pariah" over the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Air Force One will make a first direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia amid efforts to build ties between the Jewish state and the conservative Gulf kingdom, which does not recognise Israel's existence.

Moments after Biden landed, Israel's military was to show him its new Iron Beam system, an anti-drone laser it claims is crucial to countering Iran's fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi warned earlier Wednesday that if Biden's goal on the trip was to bolster Israel's security, he was destined to fail.

Israel has raised 1,000 flags across Jerusalem to welcome the US leader, who has not reversed former president Donald Trump's controversial decision to recognise the city as the capital of the Jewish state.

The persistent frustrations of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy are nothing new for Biden, who first visited the region in 1973 after being elected to the Senate.

- Jerusalem to Bethlehem -

Biden will meet Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday, but there is no expectation of bold announcements toward a fresh peace process.

Biden is scheduled to have a short meeting Thursday with Israel's former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will try to reclaim power in the upcoming polls.

The United Nations has concluded the Palestinian-American journalist was killed by Israeli fire. Washington has agreed this was likely, but also said there was no evidence the killing was intentional.

Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Wednesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken "has invited the family to the United States to be able to sit down and engage with him directly". 

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