The United States looks forward to working with the new Israeli government, the Biden administration said, saying it supports the normalization of Arab-Israeli relations. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and its far-right and religious allies secured a landslide victory in the Jewish nation’s general election last year, defeating Yair Lapid. This is Netanyahu’s sixth term as prime minister.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters in New Mexico “We are really looking forward to the involvement of the Israeli government. I’m going to Israel, and when I go, it’s going to be a major topic of conversation”.
The Biden administration, Sullivan said, will have an opportunity to engage deeply with the new Israeli government about the threat posed by Iran. “We share the same basic goals. We will work on any differences we have in tactics the same way we have over the last two years.
Sullivan said “In the first months we had Prime Minister Netanyahu, then we had Prime Minister (Naftali) Bennett and then Prime Minister Lapid. All three of these men had one thing in common: none of them liked the JCPOA. All three felt very strongly that we needed to coordinate closely on Iran policy. And I think Prime Minister Netanyahu in his latest iteration will be no exception”.
On 14 July 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran nuclear deal or the Iran deal, was reached in Vienna between Iran and the P5+1 along with the European Union. the five permanent members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – plus German Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price told reporters at their daily press conference on Monday that the Negev process is not a replacement for the Israeli-Palestinian one peace.
Sullivan said “We support the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab and Muslim majority neighbors and countries around the world, but it is not a substitute”.
Price said “We believe, and have heard from participants in the Negev process, that normalization can and should be used to advance the Israeli-Palestinian path”.
In March of last year, diplomats from Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the United States arrived in Israel at the invitation of Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid for a summit in the Negev. Its aim was to build on the normalization breakthrough initiated by the 2020 Abraham Accords and further Arab-Israeli normalization.
Price said “Minister (Secretary of State, Tony) Blinken made that clear in March last year when he was in the Negev. He said we need to be clear that these regional peace agreements are not a substitute for progress between the Palestinians and the Israelis”.
The United States is doing a lot for the Palestinian people on a people-to-people basis. But this is an ongoing conversation, and it’s one that “we believe can and indeed must support its goal, which is for Palestinians and Israelis to have an equal measure of freedom, democracy and dignity,” Price said.
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