Israel’s primary goal during US President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit will be to “finalize a clear joint action plan with the US to halt Iran’s nuclear program”, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday.
“This visit is important to Israel,” Bennett said, explaining that it will deal with key priorities for Israel over the past year, particularly Iran’s nuclear program.
Bennett said that “the world is waking up to the real face of Iran,” alluding to Iran’s condemnation by the International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this month during a meeting of its board of governors in Geneva.
Bennett made the remarks during a briefing to Israeli journalists in his Jerusalem office.
The premier said Israel “succeeded” in preventing a return to what he sees as a bad deal. Now, its short-term goal was to stop Iranian uranium enrichment.
However, in the long term, Israel will be interested in a better agreement, the prime minister said. He defined such a deal as an agreement that permanently prevents Iran from moving to a nuclear weapon.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, shows the inside of a case of an IAEA surveillance device during a press conference in Vienna, Austria, December 17, 2021. (AP/Michael Gruber)
Also on Monday Iran Told Despite new US sanctions on the Islamic Republic, “the train is still not derailed” in talks aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The Vienna talks, which began in April last year, are aimed at backing the US into the nuclear deal, including lifting sanctions on Iran, and ensuring Tehran’s full compliance with its commitments.
But the always delicate dialogue has stalled since March itself.
Biden’s visit, which begins on July 13, will also deal with “strengthening regional architecture among the more moderate actors in the region,” according to Bennett.
A senior US administration official said last week that Biden would “focus on increasing integration in the region through the Abraham Accords – the normalization agreements Jerusalem signed with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco – Israel’s ties with Israel and Egypt”. Through strengthening and building a new forum set up by the Biden administration that includes the US, UAE, Israel and India – I2U2.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (R) and Indian FM Subrahmanyam Jaishankar speak to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UAE’s FM Abdullah bin Zayed, October 18, 2021 (MEA)
While in Israel, Biden will participate in I2U2’s virtual summit with Bennett, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed and Indian President Narendra Modi, the US official said, in what will be the highest-level gathering of the forum ever
Biden will visit Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia from July 13 to July 16. While in Israel, Biden is expected to meet with Bennett, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, according to an Israeli official. The official said Biden will also visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and East Jerusalem.
A senior Biden administration official said the president was using a US-funded missile defense system in Israel to highlight White House efforts to fund an additional $1 billion for Iron Dome battery replenishment in the wake of the May 2021 Gaza War. will visit. In Israel, it is known as Operation Guardian of the Walls. Biden will also discuss “new innovations among our countries that use laser technologies to defeat missiles and other airborne threats.”
During Monday’s briefing, Bennett touted the fact that last year was “the quietest for residents of the Sederot and Gaza border region.”
Supporters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group prepare balloon-incendiary devices to be launched toward Israel, east of Gaza City, on June 15, 2021. (Atiya Mohamed/Flash 90)
He also said that the last year has been the slowest for Hamas in terms of building up its military. Bennett credits Israel’s “better relations with Egypt” for a more thorough investigation on the Rafa border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
“We have reinstated detention,” Bennett announced. “Let me remind you that after Operation Guardian of the Walls, Hamas continued to send explosive balloons and burn the South.”
Israel fought Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups over 11 days in May 2021 in the fourth round of a major war since Operation Cast Lead in 2008/9.
Bennett said four policies strengthened Israel’s deterrence: preventing Hamas from receiving “suitcases of cash” from Qatar; Responding to every incendiary balloon sent from Gaza; allow the Israeli flag march through the Old City of Jerusalem to proceed as scheduled, despite threats from Hamas; and let thousands of laborers from Gaza into Israel.
The prime minister said former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to delay the flag march to 2021 in the face of threats from Hamas “damaged the Israeli resistance deeply.”
