Rivlin Begins Meetings With Party Chiefs on Forming Government; Israel Troubled by Shifting US Stance on Iran Nuke Deal

In total, the president will hold consultations with each of the 13 parties that won enough votes to secure representation in the incoming Knesset, Israel’s parliament. The meetings will be held at Rivlin’s official residence in Jerusalem and will be streamed live on the president’s social media channels.

The outcome of Monday’s discussions is up in the air. Neither the pro-Netanyahu bloc of parties nor the anti-Netanyahu camp has a clear path to a majority following the March 23 vote, Israel’s fourth inconclusive election in two years.

After the discussions, Rivlin is expected to assign a lawmaker the mandate to form the next government on Wednesday, based on who he assesses has the best chance of doing so. That person will then have 28 days — or until May 5 — to present his or her government. If the candidate fails to do so by that time, he or she can request a two-week extension, until May 19, though the president is not obligated to approve it.

If the person with the mandate does not succeed in forming a government, the president can either task a second person with the attempt, or send the mandate back to the Knesset, giving the legislature 21 days to agree on a candidate supported by 61 MKs. At the end of the 21-day period, if no candidate has been agreed upon by a majority of parliament members, the Knesset will automatically disband and the country will head to yet another election.

Mixed messages from the Biden Administration on the Iran nuclear deal, just days before indirect talks commence in Vienna between the sides, are “very troubling,” senior Israeli officials said on Sunday. They expressed their concerns after US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley spoke on Friday about a return to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) without any additional elements that would make it “longer and stronger,” as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously said.

Regarding the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic, Malley said that the US is “going to have to lift those sanctions that are inconsistent with the deal that was reached with Iran… so that Iran enjoys the benefits that it was supposed to enjoy under the deal…If either side takes a maximalist position and says that the other side has to do everything first before it’s going to move one inch, I think it’s hard to see how this succeeds.”

In response to Malley’s remarks, a senior Israeli official said: “Nowhere…does Malley say the goal is to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Nowhere does he accuse the Iranians of any bad behavior… Nowhere does he talk about the importance of consultations with American allies in the region.”

In contrast, Blinken has presented a more gradual approach with Iran that would lead to a “sharpened” JCPOA.

Normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel would bring “tremendous benefit” to the region, the Saudi Foreign Minister said, but an agreement with the kingdom is dependent on progress being made with regards to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

“It would be extremely helpful both economically but also socially and from a security perspective,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan was quoted as saying. However, Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat added that a path to normalization “can only be successful if we address the issue of the Palestinians and if we are able to deliver a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders that gives the Palestinians dignity and gives them their rights.”

In September, the United Arab Emirates became the first Persian Gulf country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords, a pact brokered by former US president Donald Trump. Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco thereafter followed suit.

Though Saudi Arabia encouraged the rapprochement, it stopped short of establishing ties with the Jewish state. Nevertheless, covert ties have strengthened in recent years, as the two countries have found a common threat in Iran. In November, Israeli officials said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prince Mohammed had secretly met in the kingdom, but Riyadh publicly denied the occurrence.