Biden, Netanyahu put chill to rest with long-awaited phone call
The Israeli Prime Minister was one of the last foreign leaders on the US President’s list.
US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid any tensions to rest on Thursday AEDT by finally holding their first phone call since the change of administration in Washington.
Mr Netanyahu was one of the last foreign leaders to get a call from Mr Biden, who took office on January 20, despite Israel’s special relationship with the US.
But both sides stressed their close ties during the call, which Mr Biden said at The White House was a “good conversation”.
The White House said Mr Biden registered “support” for a series of agreements brokered by Donald Trump on normalising relations between Israel and Arab and Muslim countries. And the President “affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel’s security and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the US-Israel partnership, including our strong defence co-operation,” a statement said.
Mr Netanyahu’s media adviser said the talk was “very warm and friendly” and lasted about an hour. “The two leaders noted their longstanding personal connection” and agreed to strengthen the countries’ alliance, they said.
The Israeli Prime Minister and US President “discussed the future advancement of the peace accords, the Iranian threat and regional challenges, and agreed to continue their dialogue”.
Placing Mr Netanyahu far down on the list was widely interpreted as Mr Biden’s way of signalling a reset in US-Mideast relations following the Trump era.
The Republican often boasted of being what he called the most “pro-Israel” president in US history. He closely followed Mr Netanyahu’s priorities, including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a move seen as provocative by many other countries.
Mr Biden has also made a point of cooling the close personal relations established by Mr Trump with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Democrat has yet to call the Saudis and says when he does it will be to King Salman himself.
The perception of a cold shoulder irked Mr Netanyahu’s Likud Party. Danny Danon, head of Likud’s global wing, recently tweeted a list of Mr Biden’s conversations with leaders and asked, “Might it now be time to call the leader of Israel, the closest ally of the US?” And Nikki Haley, Mr Trump’s former ambassador to the UN, accused the Biden administration of “snubbing” Israel.
On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that Mr Netanyahu wasn’t being ignored — but indicated that he was not exactly on the front burner. “Let me confirm for you that his first call with a leader in the region will be Prime Minister Netanyahu,” she said. “I don’t have an exact date for you but it is soon.”
Despite the back-to-normal nature of the phone call, Mr Biden’s Middle East agenda is already taking a sharp turn from the one that made Mr Trump so popular with Mr Netanyahu.
Crucially, Mr Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers to keep Tehran’s nuclear industry under close monitoring in exchange for relaxing crippling sanctions on the country.
This pleased Israel, which insists that Iran was cheating on the deal and working towards a nuclear weapon — something the Iranians denied.
Mr Biden has come into office declaring that he wants to return to the deal in some form, calling Mr Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran a failure.
AFP
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