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WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 (PTI) — The United States looks forward to working with the new Israeli government, with the Biden administration expressing and claiming support for the normalization of Arab-Israeli relations.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and its far-right and religious allies defeated Yar Lapid in the Jewish national election last year in a landslide victory. This is Netanyahu’s sixth term as prime minister.
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“We’re really looking forward to engaging with the Israeli government. I’m going to Israel and it’s going to be a big topic when I go,” National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan told reporters in New Mexico.
He said the Biden administration would have the opportunity to engage deeply with the new Israeli government on the threat posed by Iran. “We share the same basic goals. We will resolve any differences we have on tactics in the same way we have over the past two years,” Sullivan said.
“In the first few months we had Prime Minister Netanyahu, then we had Prime Minister (Naftali) Bennett, then we had Prime Minister Lapid. All three had one thing in common: none of them liked the JCPOA. All three of them feel very strongly that we need to coordinate closely on Iran policy. I think Prime Minister Netanyahu in his latest iteration is no exception,” he said.
Iran, the P5+1 and the European Union reached a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) commonly referred to as the Iran Nuclear Deal or the Iran Deal, on 14 July 2015 in Vienna. P5+1 includes the five permanent members of the Security Council — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — plus Germany
State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters at his daily news briefing on Monday that the Negev process was not a substitute for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
“We support the normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab- and Muslim-majority neighbors and countries around the world, but this is no substitute,” he said.
“We believe, and we’ve heard from those involved in the Negev process, that normalization can and should be used to advance progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track,” Price said.
Last March, diplomats from Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and the United States arrived in Israel for the Negev summit at the invitation of Israeli Foreign Minister Lapid. It is intended to build on the normalization breakthrough opened by the 2020 Abraham Accords and further Arab-Israeli normalization.
“(Secretary of State Tony) Blinken made that clear last March when he was in the Negev. He said we have to be clear that these regional peace deals are not a substitute for progress between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Price said.
“He also pointed out in the same comment how countries involved in the Abraham Accords and other normalization agreements, and those countries that have long-standing diplomatic relations with Israel and support the Palestinian people, have supported the Palestinian Authority in specific ways, and with Positive relations with Israel. The impact on the daily lives of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza,” he said.
Several countries are involved in the Negev process and they have done a lot for the Palestinian people. There are other countries that have normalized or diplomatic relations with Israel that are doing a lot for the Palestinian people, Price said in response to a question.
America is doing a lot for the Palestinian people on a people-to-people basis. But this is an ongoing conversation, Price said, one in which “we believe that we can and do must support the goal of equal freedom, democracy and dignity for Palestinians and Israelis.” PTI / LKJ
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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