Talks on the White Home between United States President Joe Biden and Israeli President Isaac Herzog have centered on Iran, the Israeli authorities mentioned on Wednesday, as its navy engaged in a crackdown on Palestinian teams within the occupied West Financial institution.
In remarks to reporters earlier than the assembly in Washington, DC, the 2 leaders didn’t point out Palestinians regardless of mounting tensions and violence, particularly within the West Financial institution metropolis of Nablus, the place six Palestinians have been killed this week.
As a substitute, Herzog invoked the crackdown on anti-government protests in Iran as he sat subsequent to Biden within the Oval Workplace.
“That is an instance of Iran crushing their very own residents whereas transferring ahead in direction of nuclear weapons and supplying deadly weapons that’s killing harmless residents in Ukraine,” Herzog mentioned. “I believe the Iranian problem will likely be a serious problem to be mentioned.”
After the assembly, the Israeli president mentioned in an announcement that the 2 leaders mentioned “primarily the difficulty of Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons”.
Whereas Tehran denies pursuing a nuclear weapon, Israel has continued to oppose diplomatic efforts between the US and Iran to revive the 2015 nuclear deal that noticed Iran reduce its nuclear programme in alternate for worldwide sanctions reduction.
Israel, certainly one of 4 international locations that aren’t signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is extensively believed to own a covert nuclear arsenal.
The Israeli president, who serves in a largely ceremonial function, famous on Wednesday that the US and Israel will maintain essential legislative elections subsequent month, saying the partnership between the 2 international locations “transcends all political variations and opinions and events”.
For his half, Biden reiterated pro-Israel statements that he has repeatedly used throughout his decades-long political profession. “Had been there not an Israel, we’d need to invent one,” he mentioned forward of the assembly.
He additionally careworn the “ironclad” US dedication to Israel and highlighted a latest, Washington-brokered settlement to attract everlasting maritime boundaries between Israel and Lebanon.
Advocates questioned why Biden, who had promised to place human rights on the centre of US overseas coverage, didn’t deliver up latest Israeli abuses in opposition to Palestinians in his feedback to reporters forward of the talks with Herzog.
“Whereas the Israeli navy invades Palestinian neighborhoods and brutally kills Palestinian individuals, persevering with Israel’s decades-long violent colonialism, President Biden couldn’t spare a single remark concerning the Palestinian individuals in his remarks to the media in the present day,” Sana Siddiq, an advocate with the US Marketing campaign for Palestinian Rights, advised Al Jazeera in an announcement.
“His callous disregard for Palestinian human life as he cozies as much as apartheid Israel is shameful,” she mentioned.
Biden has mentioned he helps the two-state answer whereas additionally pledging to deepen US navy and diplomatic assist for Israel. He has didn’t ship on a marketing campaign promise to re-establish a consulate for Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
In the meantime, the US administration refrains from criticising Israeli rights violations in opposition to Palestinians, together with the enlargement of settlements within the occupied West Financial institution and East Jerusalem – territories that may be house to a future Palestinian state.
The White Home as a substitute has centered on regional “integration”, advancing a imaginative and prescient of the Center East the place Arab international locations cooperate militarily and economically with Israel to thrust back perceived frequent threats, specifically Iran.
On Wednesday, Herzog additionally talked about Israel’s partnerships within the area earlier than and after the assembly with Biden.
“We mentioned the mixing and inclusion of Israel within the area and the potential of doing so many nice issues with our neighbors within the varied Arab states round us,” he mentioned in an announcement.
The Israeli president additionally cited the upcoming COP27 UN local weather summit in Egypt as a chance to push in direction of that purpose.
“The local weather change problem can function a typical denominator for thus many countries and likewise between Israel and the US,” Herzog advised reporters on the White Home.