With his first stop in Israel, today, Wednesday (13/7), his tour begins in Middle Eastwhich is a real balancing act between the Middle East, tension with Iran and negotiations with oil-rich Saudi Arabia, America’s president, Joe Biden.
The presidential plane has already departed and is expected to land at 15:00 (local and Greek time) at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, where BeideIsraeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid will be welcomed.
Immediately, the Israeli army is expected, as reported by the Athens News Agency, to show the American president the technologies it has, including a laser for dealing with drones.
“Discussions (with Biden) will focus first and foremost on IRAn”, Lapid had declared earlier this week.
The Israel is trying to prevent Western powers, including the US, from reviving the 2015 international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, from which Washington unilaterally withdrew under Donald Trump in 2018.
“Lobster” Israel because of Biden
Israeli police to deploy around 16,000 members during US president’s visitwhile many roads have already been closed in Israel, mainly in Jerusalem.
On Vasileos David Street, where the hotel where Biden will stay is located, American flags have been raised to honor the American president.
Previously, in 2017, Donald Trump had visited Israel. Much to the dismay of the Palestinians, the former US president recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the US embassy there, a decision his successor has not reversed.
The issue of Jerusalem is one of the key issues in peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel, which have been stalled since 2014. The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, which Israel has controlled since 1967, to become the capital of their future state. .
Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Adviser, assured on Monday that Washington has restored “almost frozen diplomatic relations” with the Palestinians.
He even emphasized that the US “unequivocally” supports the solution of “two states”, one Israeli and one Palestinian, while he added that financial aid to the Palestinians has been restored. Biden is expected to announce tomorrow Thursday from East Jerusalem the provision of financial aid to the Palestinians.
Despite her request, the US president is not scheduled to meet with the family of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist for Al Jazeera who was shot dead in May during an Israeli raid in the West Bank.
The UN, al Jazeera, Qatar, Abu Aqleh’s family and various journalistic investigations say the bullet came from an Israeli soldier, a scenario the US has called “likely”, although it has ruled out deliberate action.
“So far we hear nothing but meaningless words and see no results”
Biden is expected to hold talks Friday in Bethlehem in the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Although he claims his policies are diametrically opposed to Trump’s, the 79-year-old US president has not reopened the US consulate in East Jerusalem and has not really tried to revive Middle East peace talks.
“So far we hear nothing but meaningless words and see no results,” said Palestinian Authority supporter Jibir Rajoub.
Another critical issue is the prospect, still hypothetical, of a normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Biden will make a symbolic move by taking a direct flight Friday from Tel Aviv to Jeddah.
“The fact that President Biden is flying directly to Saudi Arabia sums up the dynamics of the last few months (…) We hope and act in such a way that this is the first step, the beginning, of a normalization process,” said a senior Israeli official on Tuesday.
The Biden administration would like to get assurances from Saudi Arabia, a strategic U.S. ally and top oil exporter, that it will increase production in order to limit the rise in the price of black gold and lower inflation.
During his campaign, Biden said he wanted to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah state” after the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. After being elected, he declassified a report which concluded that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had “sanctioned” the killing.
On Saturday in Jeddah, Biden is scheduled to meet with bin Salman.
Source: News Beast
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