Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will discuss the Iranian nuclear deal deadlock when he meets on August 26 in Washington, D.C., with US President Joe Biden for the first time since assuming office in June.
According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, the two leaders will talk about a range of critical global security issues, with the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment program at the top of the agenda.
Discussions about how to revive the nuclear pact have stalled since April – almost exactly three years after Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump pulled America out of the agreement.
The UN’s atomic watchdog has warned Tehran is currently enriching uranium metal, calling it a “key step in the development of a nuclear weapon.” The production of such metal is prohibited under the terms of the 2015 accord.
The Bennett-Biden meeting also comes amid heightened tensions following last month’s Iran-attributed drone attack on an Israeli-managed vessel off the coast of Oman.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has described the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover as the “moral downfall of America.”
In a televised address, the leader of the Lebanon-based terror group suggested the decision to pull US troops from the country should prompt questions about the strength of Washington’s support for Israel. “Those watching most closely and drawing conclusions from this are the Israelis,” Nasrallah said.
“In order not to have Americans fighting for other [nations], [President Joe] Biden was able to accept a historic failure,” he continued, adding, “when it comes to Lebanon and those around it, what will be the case there?”
President Biden has defended his decision to leave the country, despite Taliban militants almost immediately taking over.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah has invited Naftali Bennett for talks in the coming weeks, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister has confirmed.
“The invitation from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was conveyed by Egypt’s intelligence minister during a meeting with Bennett in Jerusalem,” the statement said.
The two leaders will reportedly discuss the fragile Egyptian-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that ended 11 days of conflict in May.
The last official visit to Cairo by an Israeli prime minister was in 2011 when Benjamin Netanyahu met with the late Hosni Mubarak, who was in power at the time. Netanyahu also reportedly met with al-Sisi in 2018, although this has not been confirmed.
The IDF is said to have dropped leaflets in southern Syria warning Syrian soldiers against cooperating with Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah. The Arabic-language pamphlets were released just hours after Israeli missiles struck a nearby Syrian military base and an outpost that is currently under the control of the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group.
Addressed to “Syrian [Arab] army soldiers,” the leaflets said any aiding of Hajj Hashem “will bring ruin.” Hashem is the leader of the Hezbollah’s so-called Golan File, a unit focused on building terrorist infrastructure close to Israel’s northern border.
“Their [Hezbollah’s] evil intentions have been exposed. You are responsible for your own actions and Hezbollah is responsible for your suffering,” the flyers added.
Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that in 2013 he rejected a proposal from then-United States secretary of state John Kerry to visit Afghanistan, which the Obama administration apparently envisioned as a model for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Writing on Facebook, Netanyahu said Kerry “invited me on a secret visit to Afghanistan to see, in his words, how the US established a local military force that can stand up to terror on its own.
“The message was clear. The ‘Afghanistan model’ was the model the US wanted to implement for the Palestinian matter, as well,” Netanyahu revealed.
The current opposition leader apparently declined the offer in the belief Afghanistan would crumble once US troops were withdrawn.
“That, unfortunately, is what is happening now: An Islamist extremist regime conquered Afghanistan and will turn it into a terror state that will endanger the world,” Netanyahu wrote.
He warned a similar scenario would materialize in Israel if territory is ceded to the Palestinians.
Recommended Reading
- How the Taliban Takeover Changes the Dynamics in a Biden-Bennett Meeting – Analysis (Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post)
- Cancel the Durban IV Review Conference (Alan Baker, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Building Project Unearths Ancient History in Tel Aviv Suburb (Stuart Winer, Times of Israel)
- The Forgotten Hungarian Hero’s Long Journey to Recognition (Adi Rubinstein, Israel Hayom)
