Israel needs to do more against settlers committing violence, says Blinken

Israel needs to do more to counter violence by settlers against Palestinians, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in a phone call on Tuesday.

Blinken said the US appreciates messages from Cohen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant against the violent incidents that took place over the weekend, but that more action must be taken.

Blinken's call came after repeated arson and other attacks by Jewish extremists on Palestinian villages last weekend, in apparent revenge for recent deadly Palestinian terror attacks on Israelis. The heads of the IDF, police and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) called the incidents nationalist terror.

Cohen said that the government of Israel fully condemns events in which citizens take the law into their own hands.

The escalation of violence in the West Bank comes from “proxies of the Iranian Ayatollahs regime,” Cohen stated. “Iran is directing terrorism across the Middle East, from Lebanon to Syria, via Iraq and Yemen, to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Cohen also called on the international community to act aggressively and unequivocally to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, which would be a danger to the world and mark the start of a regional nuclear arms race.

Cohen and Blinken also discussed the possibility of Israel establishing diplomatic relations with more Arab and Muslim countries, and a new date for the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Negev Forum.

The Negev Forum gathers the US, Israel and the Arab states with which Israel has peace, except for Jordan, to discuss multilateral matters, including security. A foreign ministers’ meeting set to take place in Morocco this year has been postponed multiple times, in part because of the Israeli government’s policies in Judea and Samaria.

“Expanding the circle of normalization and peace in the Middle East, led by the US, will advance the entire region and bring security, growth and stability,” Cohen said. “We will continue to act to build and strengthen our relations with additional countries in the Middle East and beyond.”

Cohen also expressed his appreciation for departing US Ambassador Tom Nides, who ends his tenure in Israel at the end of June.

The State Department did not release a readout of the call by press time.

Related Tags

 

Blinken reaffirms need for two-state solution

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israelis and Palestinians to ease tensions on Monday during a visit to Jerusalem, reaffirming a long-stalled peace vision of two states side by side as the only path forward.

Arriving amid the bloodiest violence in years, Blinken focused censure on a Palestinian gun spree outside a synagogue that put Israel on high alert but also cautioned against any celebration or avenging of such bloodshed.

Seven people were shot dead in Friday's attack by an East Jerusalem man who was himself killed by police. Lionized by many fellow Palestinians, he had no known links to militant groups.

A day earlier, Israel carried out an unusually deep raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, killing 10 residents, most of them gunmen. At least 35 Palestinians, including fighters and civilians, have died in violence surging since beginning 2023, medical officials say.

"It is the responsibility of everyone to take steps to calm tensions rather than inflame them," Blinken told reporters after landing in Tel Aviv.

He said, “Friday's rampage was more than an attack on individuals. It was also an attack on the universal act of practicing one's faith. We condemn it in the strongest terms”.

"And we condemn all those who celebrate these and any other acts of terrorism that take innocent lives, no matter who the victim is or what they believe. Calls for vengeance against more innocent victims are not the answer."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Blinken met later on Monday, has called for more citizens to carry guns as a precaution against such street attacks. But he has also warned Israelis not to resort to vigilante violence.

Blinken is due to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday.

Palestinian officials said Israeli settlers had set fire on Monday to two cars near the northern West Bank city of Nablus and thrown stones at a house near Ramallah, following a similar attack on Sunday.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Palestinian officials said Israeli troops killed a 26-year-old man at a checkpoint. The army said troops opened fire on the man's car after he rammed into one of them and tried to flee an inspection.

The last round of US-sponsored talks on founding a Palestinian state alongside Israel stalled in 2014.

Netanyahu's new hardline government includes partners who oppose Palestinian statehood, and control over the Palestinian territories is divided between Abbas, who favours diplomacy, and rival Hamas Islamists, who are sworn to Israel's destruction.

After meeting Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Blinken restated Washington's belief that a two-state solution was the only way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“As I said to the prime minister, anything that would move us away from that vision is, in our judgment, detrimental to Israel's long-term security and long-term identity as a Jewish and democratic state,” Blinken said.

Recent data indicates that public support for a two-state solution has reached a historic low.

According to a survey published last week by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Research, 33% of Palestinians and 34% of Israeli Jews say they support it, a significant drop from data collected in 2020.

Two-thirds of Palestinians and 53% of Israeli Jews said they opposed the two-state solution.

Blinken also addressed local political tensions, noting that the vibrancy of Israel's civil society has been on full display of late, a reference to large demonstrations against proposed changes in the judiciary that protesters see as undermining judicial independence.

Standing alongside Netanyahu, Blinken said a strength of the US and Israeli democracies was a recognition that building consensus for new proposals is the most effective way to ensure they're embraced and that they endure.

United States makes attempt to mend relations with United Arab Emirates

US President Joe Biden seems to have initiated efforts to mend its relationship with Abu Dhabi. Lately, some cabinet members led by Vice President visited to the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich nation in the midst of a critical leadership change.

Rejection and perceived disinterest from Washington has led the UAE to recently act more boldly on the global stage. It abstained from a US-led resolution at the United Nations that condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Emirati officials have also refused to increase oil production in an effort to lower gas prices and continue to pursue closer ties with China.  

Following the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the country’s second president, who had officially ruled since 2004, Biden this week dispatched his most senior cabinet officials led by Vice President Kamala Harris. She was joined by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and CIA Director William Burns.

The visit by the Biden administration’s top brass was one to express condolences — and congratulations — to the new leader, Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan. Known as MBZ, he is the late president’s half-brother.

Harris, in remarks after a meeting said the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the shared commitment we have to security and prosperity in this region and also how the American people have benefited from this relationship in terms of security and prosperity.” She called the UAE a friend and partner.

The trip came as US officials attempted to woo the monarchy amid a long list of strains between Abu Dhabi and Washington. Another issue is that of a longtime American foe Iran, as the UAE has rejected the Biden administration’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with Tehran. The tensions stand in stark contrast to the close ties the UAE held with the former administration.

Abu Dhabi welcomed then-President Trump’s exit from the Iran nuclear deal. Most notably, the Gulf state benefited from normalizing relations with Israel through American proposed military sales and Washington pulling its support from Israeli plans to annex the West Bank. 

“MBZ, because he sees himself as a man of vision, and Abu Dhabi of being a significant and important country, he expects respect and certainly under Biden, doesn’t think he’s been treated with respect,” said Simon Henderson, Director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute.

“Trump and Jared Kushner the president’s son-in-law and senior advisor sort of treated him with respect.”

Experts said that the trip by Biden officials signals the administration knows it has some work to do.

“I think the high level delegation signals that Washington would like to repair the relationship and it’s really important that they do that,” said Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.

Mohammed, 61, has been considered the de-facto ruler of the Emirates for nearly 10 years, since then-President Khalifa suffered a stroke in 2014 and was largely sidelined from power up until his death. 

Mohammed has held tremendous sway throughout the region during his time as crown prince of Abu Dhabi and is described by regional watchers as having a vision, focused on growing the Emirates wealth, making its economy an important global player and pushing back against what it views as the threat of political Islam, in particular in neighboring Iran and Qatar.

Gerald Feierstein, former ambassador to Yemen and a distinguished senior fellow on US diplomacy at Middle East Institute, said Mohammed’s influence on the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords — the normalization agreements between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain — signaled the crown prince’s desire to be a driver of events of the region more broadly, than just the Gulf.  

The UAE has also garnered greater independence from the US

“For the Emirates, they consider the US a less reliable security and regional partner than it has been considered in the past and so they’re willing to craft their own independent foreign policy,” said Courtney Freer, nonresident fellow with the Brookings Institution.

Abu Dhabi took issue early on in the Biden administration with what it viewed as a weak response to threats and attacks the Emirates faced from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels, including Biden removing the Houthi terrorist designation.

Ibish, of the Arab Gulf States Institute, said the robust US response to support Ukraine following Russia’s invasion underscored the feeling that Washington was abandoning its security commitments in the Middle East.  

“They look at the firm and united and resolute response to the invasion of Ukraine and compare it to those missile attacks by the Houthis and they feel very second best and not particularly looked after,” he said.

That has left leaders in the Emirates looking for help elsewhere.

“Whatever Washington wants, MBZ will make his own deal with Iran because they’re neighbors across the waters of the Gulf. And Dubai in particular, has important contacts with Iran at least on a commercial level,” Henderson said. 

Also at issue are negotiations that were reportedly rejected by the UAE to buy 50 F-35 fighter jets from the US amid defense security conditions for the acquisition, a UAE official told Reuters in December. 

A State Department spokesperson, requesting anonymity, told The Hill. “The administration remains committed to the sales and are continuing consultations with the UAE to ensure that we have a clear, mutual understanding with respect to Emirati obligations and actions before, during, and after delivery.” 

Before the Biden administration visit this week, the US had already started to take steps toward repairing the diplomatic relationship, Ibish noted, in the form of an apology by Blinken to MBZ last month for the Biden administration’s delay in responding to Houthi attacks in Abu Dhabi this year.

“It’s the apology that goes a long way because the response really did seem insufficient and particularly in the light of the Ukraine invasion, where the difference of the Western response is very stark,” Ibish added.

Feierstein added that the Blinken-MBZ meeting in Morocco was a step in the right direction that cleared away a lot of the underbrush in the relationship.

“No two states ever see anything eye to eye, there are always differences in opinion and of position. But what you do want is a strong institutional link that allows you to work through those issues,” he added.

 

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari invited by Antony Blinken to attend food security meeting at UN headquarters

Reportedly top-level contacts between Pakistan and the United States recommenced on Friday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and inviting him to attend a food security meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on May 18, 2022.

The two-day ministerial conference will focus on the threat to global food security, triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and will be chaired by Blinken himself.

Such encouraging statements were rare during the PTI regime and the phone call to Bilawal was the first contact between the foreign ministers of the two countries in quite a while. On September 24, 2021, then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had met Secretary Blinken on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York.

Pakistan is also exploring the possibility of bringing Bilawal to Washington for a separate meeting with Secretary Blinken. “Why wait? Why not try to arrange a meeting now?” said a diplomatic source when asked if Pakistan was seeking a Bilawal-Blinken meeting later this month.

 “Received a call from Secretary Blinken. Grateful for warm felicitations on my assumption of office,” Bilawal said in a tweet he posted after the call.

“Exchanged views on strengthening mutually beneficial, broad-based relationship, promotion of peace, development and security and agreed engagement with mutual respect is the way forward between the US and Pakistan,” he wrote.

The two-day ministerial meeting that Pakistan’s young Foreign Minister has been invited to precedes a UN Security Council debate on ‘Conflict and Food Security’.

The US says that since the February 24 invasion, Russia has blocked Ukraine’s ports, causing the suspension of food supplies to the Middle East and Africa.

Pakistan’s participation in a UN meeting that highlights the problems caused by the Russian invasion would be a major departure from the policies of the previous PTI government.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan clearly annoyed the US and other Western powers by visiting Moscow on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. Later, he claimed that the US “conspired” with Pakistani opposition parties to oust him and displays a diplomatic cable to support his claim.

Washington has rejected his claim, saying that although it backs the democratic process in Pakistan, it does not support any party or individual. Such terse exchanges between Islamabad and Washington further strained an already tense relationship.

But since Khan’s departure, the Biden administration has issued almost a dozen statements underlining its desire to re-engaging with Pakistan.

The ministerial conference in New York would be Bilawal’s first participation in a multilateral meeting since becoming foreign minister late last month.

A source, privy to the conversation, while confirming the invitation, hoped that it works out. Secretary Blinken had called to greet the new Foreign Minister, but the conversation continued for nearly fifty minutes, in which both sides discussed various aspects of the bilateral cooperation and expressed keen interest in re-engaging.

“The conversation went very well,” the source maintained.

The source also said that neither side spoke about the former PTI government’s allegation that the US conspired to topple it.

A US State Department readout of Friday’s call highlighted several key points of the conversation that focused on strengthening the bilateral relationship and working together to stabilize Afghanistan.

Spokesperson Ned Price said that Secretary Blinken reiterated the desire to strengthen our broad-based bilateral relationship. The secretary underscored the resolute US-Pakistan commitment to Afghan stability and combating terrorism. The Secretary and Foreign Minister also highlighted ongoing engagement on trade and investment, climate, energy, health, and education, Price added.

He noted that this year marks the 75th anniversary of US-Pakistani relations and “we look forward to strengthening our cooperation.”

In Islamabad, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a statement, saying that in the phone call, Secretary Blinken expressed the desire to continue strengthening mutually beneficial US-Pakistan bilateral relationship.

Exchanging views on various aspects of US-Pakistan relations, the Foreign Minister underscored that Pakistan and the United States had a longstanding broad-based relationship, the statement added.

Bilawal said that a constructive and sustained engagement between the two countries on the basis of mutual respect and mutual interest was vital to promote peace, development and security in the region and beyond.

The Foreign Minister emphasized that Pakistan’s vision was focused on human development, regional connectivity, and a peaceful neighborhood.

Secretary Blinken also invited Pakistan to the Second Global Covid Summit, which is to be held virtually later this month.

 

Can United States shut down Russian gas pipeline?

Democrats are headed for a showdown with Senator Ted Cruz over his bid to force the Biden administration’s hand over a Russian gas pipeline. 

As part of a deal reached by Cruz and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, the Senate will vote next week on legislation from the conservative firebrand to put sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which will carry gas from Moscow to Germany. 

Cruz needs help from 10 Democrats to get the bill through the Senate, and said he thinks his prospects for hitting that threshold are good. But Democrats are raising red flags over the bill, even though they’ve previously supported similar sanctions. 

”I’ve been talking to a number of my colleagues, and they have raised some serious questions about the Cruz amendment. … It’s a little much,” said Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, asked if 10 Democrats would support the bill. 

Cruz’s legislation requires the administration to impose sanctions related to the pipeline within 15 days of the bill becoming law, but a big sticking point for Democrats, raised by senators are restrictions on President Biden’s ability to waive the sanctions, including the ability for Congress to vote to reinstate the penalties if they are waived. 

“I’ve been opposed to Nord Stream 2. I am still opposed to Nord Stream 2. There are some things though in the Cruz amendments are unprecedented. That gives me a pause,” said Sen. Ben Cardin, a senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. 

Senator Tim Kaine noted that the Foreign Relations Committee, which he serves on with Cruz, had been pretty uniformly against Nord Stream 2 and in support of sanctions but the question is what are the conditions, does the executive get the ability to waive sanctions?

The vote could be politically awkward for Democrats, forcing them to pick between supporting a president they align with politically or cracking down on a pipeline they oppose even if they disagree with Cruz’s tactics. Cruz has also opened the door to releasing part of his blockade on Biden’s nominees if his bill passes the Senate. 

The Biden administration previously waived sanctions on the pipeline’s project company Nord Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of the Russian-owned company Gazprom. Voting for Cruz’s amendment would effectively be supporting nixing Biden’s decision. 

Democrats have faced pressure from the Biden administration and European allies to reject slapping financial penalties on the pipeline. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously lobbied Democrats to quash Cruz’s proposal last year when he offered it as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping defense policy bill. 

Blinken, during a speech this week, argued that the pipeline could be used as a check on Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, where Moscow has amassed troops along the border.

“This pipeline does not have gas flowing through it at present and if Russia renews its aggression toward Ukraine, it would certainly be difficult to see gas flowing through it in the future,” Blinken said. 

Germany is unlikely to certify the pipeline for operation in the first half of the year, according to the head of the federal authority for gas and infrastructure, Reuters reported, citing regulation requirements not yet met.  

Ned Price, a spokesman for the State Department, added that the administration is working with members of Congress and European allies “on a package of sanctions … that maximizes the potential costs to Russia if Moscow does continue with aggression against Ukraine.” 

Underlining the complicated diplomatic dance the White House is undertaking, the vote will coincide with diplomatic summits next week with Russia and other partners to address and tamp down the tension on Ukraine’s border. Russia has amassed nearly 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border, prompting fears of an invasion.

Kaine, who said he is still reviewing Cruz’s legislation, acknowledged that the Biden administration was worried about transatlantic tensions at a precarious moment, but noted that both a new German government and heightened Russian aggression could “change the dynamic a little bit.” 

“I want to hear what the administration position is, but President Obama was a friend and I voted for things he didn’t like. We do our job, and then the president gets to do his job. … If he really doesn’t like what we do he can veto it,” he said. 

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline has sparked a wide, bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill over concerns that it only bolsters Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hand over Europe.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, for example, recently co-authored an op-ed with Senator Rob Portman urging the Biden administration to “seriously reconsider the imposition of [Nord Stream 2] sanctions.”

The House also previously voted to approve Nord Stream 2 sanctions as part of its defense policy bill. But the provisions were dropped from the final House-Senate agreement. 

If Democrats block his bill, Cruz is already signaling that he’ll weaponize a “no” vote as Democrats being soft on Russia. 

 “Virtually every Democrat has voted for sanctions on Nord Stream 2 multiple times. If this were a vote on the merits it would be unanimous or nearly unanimous. There are multiple Democrats who have told me they are going to vote for it, or they are strongly considering voting for it,” Cruz said. 

Cruz added that supporting his bill “should be an easy vote,” before offering a likely preview of how he’ll characterize a defeat of the legislation.

“Each Democrat is going to have to make a choice,” he said, “whether their partisan loyalty to the White House is greater than their willingness to stand up to Russia and stop Putin’s aggression.”

Israeli Defense Minister presents Iran attack timeline to US officials

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz updated the US officials that he has set a deadline for when the IDF will need to complete preparations for an attack against Iran.

The Americans did not voice opposition to the Israeli preparations when presented with the date by Gantz on Thursday, a senior diplomatic source said the following day.

The IDF has intensified planning for an attack against its arch enemy. Last week, American sources revealed that Austin and Gantz were expected to discuss joint military preparations and a report on Kan said that the IDF was planning a massive mock strike aerial drill for this summer.

Gantz met with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday. The conversations focused mainly on Iran and its continued pursuit of nuclear capability, but some of the US officials also brought up Israeli settlement activity and their concern that building in the West Bank will block a future two-state solution.

Jerusalem consulted with Washington on two previous strikes on Iran, one in June against a facility producing centrifuges in Karaj, and another on a missile production site outside Tehran, The New York Times reported.

US President Joe Biden asked his National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan two months ago to review plans to attack Iran if diplomatic efforts fail, as well as the possibilities for increasing sanctions.

That leak comes as the US and Israel are increasingly at odds in their evaluation of the Iranian threat. Israeli officials continue to be deeply concerned that in the recently resumed negotiations in Vienna, Washington will seek an interim deal lifting sanctions on Tehran while insufficiently restricting its nuclear program.

According to the State Department, Blinken spoke with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Friday. They discussed topics “including the enduring importance of the US-Israel bilateral relationship, Israeli-Palestinian issues, and regional developments, such as our shared conviction that Iran must not be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

According to the Foreign Ministry, Lapid told Blinken, “Even if there is a return to negotiations, sanctions on Iran must not be lifted. The money the Iranians will receive will reach our doorstep in the form of terrorism and missiles.”

The conversation was “warm, productive and open,” Israel’s MFA said in a readout, and included topics such as “joint efforts to stop Iran from becoming a nuclear threshold state, Minister Lapid’s visit to Cairo, the arrival of new US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, and expanding the circle of peace.”

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price commented on Thursday on US-Israel discussions of alternative ways to counter the Iranian nuclear threat if negotiations in Vienna collapse.

“I wouldn’t want to speak to what we might be contemplating if the path to diplomacy toward a mutual return to compliance isn’t viable in the near term,” Price said. “But we are discussing those alternatives. We are discussing those options with our close partners, with our close allies, and that includes with the Israelis. We have already had good discussions with the Israelis about the path forward, and how we can work together to ensure that Iran is never able to acquire a nuclear weapon.”

Gantz addressed the Israel American Council summit in Miami on Friday, saying that Iran is a great threat to Israel but first and foremost to the world.

“This is why the international community, with US leadership, must stand together and act forcefully against Iran’s hegemonic aspirations and nuclear program and restore stability for the sake of global peace,” he said.

The consultations in Washington were “excellent,” the defense minister said, and they included ways to ensure Israel’s qualitative military edge in the Middle East.

Gantz said he spoke with the Americans about how to keep the pressure on Iran with the aim of keeping them away from a nuclear capability, and to take advantage of Iranian vulnerabilities – particularly economic – that could be used to persuade them to suspend nuclear activity.

His impression from the meetings in Washington was that the fate of the negotiations in Vienna would be determined in the near future. “I think that in the coming weeks we will know where we stand,” Gantz said.

United States annoyed at growing Chinese investment in Israel

Reportedly, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to warn Israel against continued Chinese investments in the country's infrastructure and hi-tech industry when he meets Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Washington on Wednesday.

"We will be candid with our Israeli friends over risks to our shared national security interests that come with close cooperation with China," a senior State Department official told reporters during a briefing ahead of the meeting.

Blinken is also expected to meet Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Wednesday.

The US has been concerned about the UAE's use of Chinese Huawei Technologies in its communication system in light of its pending sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to the Emirates, but when speaking of China it focused only on its concern with Israel.

The highlight of the day is expected to be a trilateral meeting Blinken will host with the two foreign ministers that is designed to highlight the success of the Abraham Accords, brokered by the former administration.

The accords allowed Israel to normalize ties with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan last year, of which ties with the Emirates are the most advanced.

At the trilateral, Israel and the UAE are expected to announce two new working groups, one on religious coexistence and another that would focus on water and energy.

But the range of the topics that will be brought up in all meetings are fairly wide and include China, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lapid, in his public comments in Washington on Tuesday focused on the strong US-Israel bilateral ties and the special relationship Israel has with America and the Biden administration.

Though, US officials echoed those same sentiments at the briefing, they also discussed topics of discord in the relationship.

Biden administration officials had spoken about China with National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata when he was in Washington earlier this month.

But State Department senior officials remained vague on Tuesday with respect to their specific concerns on China.

"The US views China as a competitor that challenges the existing international rules-based order; our relationship with China will be competitive when it should be," the official stated.

On Iran, a senior State Department official said that Washington's main objective at this time is the revival of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known as the Iran deal, which Israel has traditionally opposed. 

Both the US and Israel are joined in their opposition to a nuclear Iran but have differed about how best to achieve that objective.

Lapid said on Tuesday that Iran was one of the major focal points of his Washington trip.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the senior State Department officials said that at Wednesday's meetings, Blinken will "reaffirm our belief" in the benefits of a two-state solution. He will also express his appreciation for "Minister Lapid's recent, strong statement condemning settler violence in the West Bank."

The Israeli government is split on how best to approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett opposing a two-state resolution to the conflict while Lapid has supported it.

But Lapid's visions of the borders of those two states differ from those envisioned by the Biden administration, which has not advanced a peace process. The senior State Department officials did not mention any movement on that front, except for stating that "we seek to advance it when we can, as best as we can."

An official said that the accords are not a substitute for the two-state solutions and suggested that these could be used to push for progress toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We hope that normalization can be leveraged to advance progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track," the official said.

An official also spoke of the Biden administration's commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative edge and its support for supplemental funding for the defensive Iron Dome system it provides Israel to protect Israeli citizens against Hamas rockets.

The officials repeated their opposition to Israeli settlement activity and the Palestinian Authority's monthly stipends to terrorists and their families.   

Separately, during Lapid's trip, Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz will meet with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

US-Indian cooperation against China

According to South Asia Journal, the top diplomats of India and the United States have pledged to expand their multilateral security partnership, underscoring the deepening of ties between two countries concerned over China’s growing influence in the region.

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken and Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met in New Delhi and sought to strengthen a regional front against Beijing’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific and their cooperation in Afghanistan.

They also lauded each country’s help in fighting the coronavirus and said their vaccine partnership is an effort to end the pandemic. Blinken also announced a US$25 million fund to support India’s COVID-19 vaccination program.

“There are few relationships in the world that are more vital than one between the United States and India. We are the world’s two leading democracies and our diversity fuels our national strength,” Blinken said at a joint news conference.

Washington has made no secret of its desire for India’s help in isolating China. The two countries have steadily ramped up their military relationship and signed a string of defense deals.

The US and India are part of the Quad regional alliance that also includes Japan and Australia and focuses on China’s growing economic and military strength. China has called the Quad an attempt to contain its ambitions.

Blinken’s India visit comes just days after the No. 2 U.S. diplomat, Wendy Sherman, was in China.

Blinken said he and Jaishankar also discussed regional security issues including Afghanistan, where the US is expected to complete its military withdrawal in August. He called India’s contribution to the stability of Afghanistan “vital.”

Blinken said there was no “military solution” to the conflict in Afghanistan and that the country would turn into a “pariah state” if the Taliban takes control by force.

“We will continue to work together to sustain the gains of the Afghan people and support regional stability after the withdrawal of coalition forces from the country,” Blinken said.

Jaishankar said the world wishes to see an “independent, sovereign, democratic and stable Afghanistan at peace with itself and with its neighbors,” and cautioned that the country’s “independence and sovereignty will only be ensured if it is free from malign influences.”

 New Delhi has often expressed concern that a Taliban takeover could lead to security threats against India.

India has provided Afghan security forces with operational training and military equipment, even though it has had no troops on the ground. It has also provided more than US$2 billion in development aid to Afghanistan.

In June, India’s Foreign Ministry said it was in contact with “various stakeholders” in Afghanistan to discuss its future. More recently, officials from the two countries have increased mutual visits.

“New Delhi is clearly stepping up its game on the Afghanistan front,” said Micheal Kugelman of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “Its decision to engage more in regional diplomacy on Afghanistan signifies a desire to be more of a player than it has in the past.”

In a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later Wednesday, Blinken discussed the pandemic, security and defense cooperation, including Quad, and “shared values and democratic principles,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

Earlier during his visit, Blinken spoke to civil society leaders and said fundamental freedoms and rule of law are “tenets of democracies” like the US and India.

Opponents of Modi’s governing Hindu nationalist party have accused it of stifling dissent and introducing divisive policies that discriminate against Muslims and other minorities. Modi has also been accused of trying to silence voices critical of his administration’s handling of the pandemic.

India routinely denies criticism of its human rights record. It has also rejected criticism by foreign governments and rights groups that civil liberties have contracted in the country.

 “We believe that all people deserve to have a voice in their government, to be treated with respect, no matter who they are,” Blinken said.

But experts say human rights concerns are unlikely to fundamentally affect the US-India relationship.

“For all the rhetoric trumpeting the shared values that drive partnership, it really boils down to shared interests,” Kugelman said. “At the end of the day, so long as China’s rise continues to be a common concern, the relationship will have no trouble operating on all cylinders.”

Takeaways from meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister and US Secretary of State

Israel and the United States should not air their disagreements publicly but instead should discuss them directly, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Sunday at the start of a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Rome.

“Israel has some serious reservations about the Iran nuclear deal being put together in Vienna,” he said. “We believe the way to discuss those disagreements is through direct and professional conversations, not in press conferences.”

Jerusalem and Washington share the same goals, and disagreements between them are about how to achieve them, Lapid said.

Lapid also thanked Blinken for US support for normalization between Israel and Arab states.

“I look forward to working with you to widen the circle of peace in our region,” he said. “That is the best way to bring stability and prosperity to the Middle East.”

Other issues Lapid on the agenda for his meeting with Blinken were: strengthening our ability to defend ourselves, working to minimize conflict between us and the Palestinians, while making life better for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Blinken agreed with Lapid that the US-Israel relationship is “based... on a set of shared values and shared interests.” US President Joe Biden “feels very, very strongly about... a deep, enduring, abiding commitment on the part of the United States to Israel’s security,” he said.

Blinken put the reconstruction of Gaza at the top of the agenda for his meeting with Lapid.

“The work, I hope, can be done to, as you say, offer a more hopeful future for everyone, Palestinians and Israelis alike, with equal measures of opportunity and dignity,” he said, repeating a phrase Biden administration officials used throughout Operation Guardian of the Walls last month.

Blinken used the phrase “the Abraham Accords” – contrary to criticism of the Biden administration that it had refused to use the Trump-era branding – and said they “strongly support this, and hopefully there’ll be other participants.”

Blinken said, “I think we’ve also discovered, or perhaps rediscovered, that as important as they are, as vital as they are, they are not a substitute for engaging on the issues between Israelis and Palestinians that need to be resolved.”

Israel resisting reopening of the US consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that his country opposes reopening of a US consulate for Palestinians in sovereign Israel. His announcement came hours before the US went public with its plan to do so in Jerusalem.

Blinken did not specify where in Jerusalem the new consulate would be. Many other countries have consulates or embassies to the Palestinians in east Jerusalem, which is part of Israel under Israeli law but not recognized by most countries, or in Ramallah.

The Trump administration then merged the US consulate for Palestinians, on Jerusalem’s Agron Street, into the US Embassy to Israel in West Jerusalem in March 2019; the move was mostly symbolic as most consulate workers continued doing the work they did before, but under the title of “Palestinian Affairs Unit.”

Blinken said in a press conference that he is not sure what the time frame will be on reopening the consulate.

“I can tell you that it’s, I think, important to have that platform to be able to more effectively engage not just the Palestinian Authority, but Palestinians from different walks of life, the NGO community, the business community, and others. And so we look forward to doing that,” he stated.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said soon after that reopening the consulate “is an important step in our view, in terms of continuing to rebuild the relationship with the Palestinian leaders that was cut off for several years because of the closure of the consulate, because UNRWA funding was cut off in 2018, and there really wasn’t a method for engaging with Palestinian leaders and others.”

Israeli Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan said that it is the US’s prerogative to reopen the consulate, but that Israel “indeed expressed clear opposition to reestablishing the consulate on Jerusalem’s municipal territory.”

“It can be in Abu Dis [or] Ramallah,” Erdan told KAN. “The fact that the Americans may have a security concern from opening a consulate for their workers in these places only shows what we’re talking about.”

Erdan also pointed out that opening the PA embassy in Jerusalem contradicts American policy recognizing the city as Israel’s capital, as former US president Donald Trump did in 2018 and Biden said he would not reverse. Still, Erdan said, “we can disagree with the current government and not every disagreement has to become a crisis.

Netanyahu terms Iran Nuclear agreement worthless

Israel will not rely on efforts to return to a nuclear deal with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. “Israel isn’t pinning its hopes on an agreement with an extremist regime like (Iran),” he said at a memorial service for the 1920 Battle of Tel Hai.

“With or without an agreement, we will do everything so Iran isn’t armed with nuclear weapons,” he added.

Referring to the story of Purim, which begins on Thursday night, Netanyahu said, “2,500 years ago, a Persian oppressor tried to destroy the Jewish people, and just as he failed then, you will fail today… We didn’t make a journey of thousands of years to return to the Land of Israel to allow the delusional ayatollahs’ regime to finish the story of the rebirth of the Jewish People.”

On Monday, Netanyahu met with Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, Ambassador to the US Gilad Erdan and others to discuss Israel’s strategy and response to the Biden administration’s attempted rapprochement with Iran.

The United States is seeking to start a dialogue with Iran and move toward a return to the 2015 Iran deal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said in a statement with the European countries that were party to the deal. Officials in Washington have called on Iran to return to compliance with the deal before the US would remove sanctions.

Officials in the meeting were split on whether Israel should advocate for the US to stay out of the Iran deal until it can get a better, more-secure agreement, or be more supportive of what US President Joe Biden’s stated plan is, to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the 2015 Iran deal is officially called, and then negotiate tougher terms.

Netanyahu reportedly took the first, harder line, while Gantz and Ashkenazi supported a less-confrontational approach.

As indicated by Netanyahu’s remarks, open opposition to a return to the JCPOA is still on the table.

Rejoining “the old nuclear deal of 2015 that paves Iran’s path to an arsenal of nuclear bombs will be a mistake,” Erdan told KAN Reshet Bet on Tuesday.

If the US returns to the JCPOA by lifting sanctions, it won’t have any leverage to convince Iran to reopen negotiations for a stricter deal, he said.

Nevertheless, “a diplomatic solution is always preferable to a military solution,” Erdan said, adding that “the question is whether there will be an agreement that blocks any way Iran can get a nuclear weapon.”

The officials at Monday’s meeting agreed Israel should continue its ongoing dialogue with the Biden administration rather than opt for open confrontation, as it did in former US president Barack Obama’s second term.

Erdan emphasized the importance of dialogue during his interview with KAN Reshet Bet.

“The new US administration has shown a very honest and deep will to hold organized consultations with Israel, led by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan,” he said. “Israel is in a process of full dialogue with the Biden administration and they are listening to our stance – the American government and also central countries in Europe.”

Also Tuesday, the European parties to the JCPOA, known as the E3, said Iran’s decision to block snap inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency was dangerous and a violation of the Iran deal.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK said they “deeply regret” that Iran suspended what is known as the Additional Protocol of the JCPOA.

“Iran’s actions are a further violation of its commitments under the JCPOA and significantly reduces safeguards oversight by the IAEA,” they said. “The E3 are united in underlining the dangerous nature of this decision.”

The foreign ministers said stopping snap inspections would limit IAEA access to nuclear sites and its ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear program and related activities.

“We urge Iran to stop and reverse all measures that reduce transparency and to ensure full and timely cooperation with the IAEA,” they said.

The foreign ministers said they seek to preserve the JCPOA and negotiate for Iran and the US to return to it.

The JCPOA’s additional protocol said the IAEA could hold short-term inspections in locations that Iran had not declared as nuclear sites.

Iran announced it would stop the inspections on Tuesday, going back on a prior agreement to extend them for three more months. The move was a response to the US not lifting sanctions on the regime.

Israel views the E3 as more open to the Israeli position than in the past due to Iran’s repeated violations of the deal’s limitations, KAN reported.

In recent weeks, Iran announced it would enrich uranium up to 20% and produce uranium metal, which the E3 said has no credible civilian use.

Israel has increased pressure on the E3 to try to talk them out of rejoining the old Iran deal, with many more discussions about Iran than usual, KAN reported.

Will Biden withdraw US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Golan?

The Golan Heights will always be part of Israel; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken walked back the Trump administration’s recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel.

“The Golan was and will remain part of Israel,” Netanyahu said while visiting a health clinic in Zarzir, near Nazareth. “With an agreement, without an agreement, we are not coming down from the Golan. It will remain a sovereign part of the State of Israel.”

It may be recalled that Blinken in an interview on CNN on Monday night said “As a practical matter, the control of the Golan in that situation I think remains of real importance to Israel’s security.”

“Legal questions are something else, and over time if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we look at, but we are nowhere near that,” he stated.

Blinken added that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, as well as the presence of militia groups backed by Iran; pose a “significant security threat” to Israel.

US President Joe Biden’s advisers had said previously that he would not withdraw US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.

Former US president Donald Trump officially granted US recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory in 2019, a dramatic shift from decades of US policy.

Israel gained control of the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 during Six-Day War, and applied its laws to the area in 1981. No country other than the US has recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.

Right-wing parties running in the Knesset election in March said Blinken’s statement would not deter them from developing the Golan Heights.

New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar tweeted that Israel, under former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, applied its sovereignty to the Golan Heights 40 years ago.

“The Golan will always be an inseparable part of Israel,” Sa’ar wrote. “A government led by me will strengthen and grow our settlement in the Golan Heights.”

Yamina responded that “the future of our land will be decided by Israel’s actions and not by words.

“An Israeli government led by Naftali Bennett will act to strengthen our hold on the Golan Heights, Samaria, the [Jordan] Valley and Judea and the rest of the land,” the party stated.

The Religious Zionist Party led by MK Bezalel Smotrich used Blinken’s statement as an opportunity to attack New Hope and Yamina for not unequivocally endorsing Netanyahu.

“Whoever thinks that they can put their values aside even at the price of joining a left-wing government will find himself fighting not only for the recognition of the Golan Heights but against towns being evacuated,” the party said.

In the same interview, Blinken reiterated past comments that “if Iran returns to compliance with those obligations in the nuclear agreement, we would do the same thing, and then we would work with our allies and partners to try and build a longer and stronger agreement, and also bring in some of these other issues, like Iran’s missile program, like its destabilizing actions in the region, that need to be addressed as well.”

“The problem we face now,” he said, “is that in recent months, Iran has lifted one restraint after another… And the result is they are closer than they’ve been to having the capacity on short order to produce the solid material for a nuclear weapon.”

Blinken criticized the Trump administration’s decision to leave the Iran deal in 2018.

As for how the Biden White House viewed the previous administration’s efforts to broker peace in the region, Blinken said “We applaud the Abraham Accords.”

“This is an important step forward,” he continued. “Whenever we see Israel and its neighbors normalizing relations, improving relations, that’s good for Israel, it’s good for the other countries in question, it’s good for overall peace and security and I think it offers new prospects to people throughout the region through travel, through trade, through other work that they can do together to actually, materially, improve their lives, and that’s a good thing.”

But he added, “That doesn’t mean that the challenges of the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians go away. They don’t. They’re still there and they’re not going to miraculously disappear. So we need to engage on that, but in the first instance, the parties in question need to engage on that.”

Blinken posited that a final resolution between Israel and the Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state will not happen soon, but the Biden administration would try to ensure that neither side took unilateral actions to make peace more challenging.

“Hopefully, we’ll see both sides take steps to create a better environment in which actual negotiations can take place,” he said.

Whether he regards Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Blinken replied: “I do, yes. And, more importantly, we do.”

When pressed, Blinken would not commit whether the Biden administration would recognize a potential Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, opting instead to say that an issue of this sort should be negotiated by the involved parties.

Nuclear weapons are in contradiction to our ideological views, says Zarif

If Iran wanted a nuclear weapon it would have built one already, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said in an interview with CNN published on Tuesday. 

"If we wanted to build a nuclear weapon we could have done it some time ago," Zarif told Christiane Amanpour. "But we decided that nuclear weapons are not, would not augment our security and are in contradiction to our, eh, ideological views. And that is why we never pursued nuclear weapons."

On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told NBC that if Iran violated additional restrictions included in the 2015 nuclear deal it could obtain enough fissionable material for a bomb within "a matter of weeks". 

Zarif said that the uranium enriched by the Islamic Republic could immediately be scaled back to comply with the nuclear deal if the US lifts sanctions. "Eight thousand pounds of enriched uranium can go back to the previous amount in less than a day,” he claimed. 

The Biden administration, the Iranian foreign minister said, had a "limited window of opportunity" to re-enter the 2015 nuclear agreement.

"The time for the United States to come back to the nuclear agreement is not unlimited," he said. "The United States has a limited window of opportunity, because President Biden does not want to portray himself as trying to take advantage of the failed policies of the former Trump administration."

Zarif sketched out the path to overcome the impasse saying the EU foreign policy chief could "choreograph" the moves.

"There can be a mechanism to basically either synchronize it or coordinate what can be done," Zarif told CNN when asked in an interview how to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran. Each government wants the other to resume compliance first.

Zarif noted the agreement created a Joint Commission coordinated by the European Union foreign policy chief, now Josep Borrell. Borrell "can ... sort of choreograph the actions that are needed to be taken by the United States and the actions that are needed to be taken by Iran," Zarif told CNN.

The Commission includes Iran and the six other parties to the deal that were Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

 

Israel fears losing its freedom to operate against Iran

Speculation about the extent to which the incoming American administration will appease Iran has been rampant. But US President-elect Joe Biden’s picks for relevant top positions don’t seem to leave much room for supposition.

Let’s start with William Burns, Biden’s nomination for CIA director. Burns currently serves as president of the left-wing foreign-policy think tank the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of its donors is the Open Society Foundations network, established by George Soros.

Burns has decades of experience as a career diplomat under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Burns is a longtime associate of Biden. The two have worked closely together, most recently when the latter was Vice President and the former was Deputy Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, during the administration of former US President, Barack Obama.

Burns who had served as Ambassadors to Russia and Jordan, also had a key role in talks with the regime in Tehran in 2013. These led to the 2015 signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5+1 countries: the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China plus Germany. By that time Burns had retired, but his imprint lived on in the nuclear deal.

In this context, Biden’s statement about Burns – “[He] shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical” – is not liked by his opponents. The cause of greater concern is Burns’s faith in the JCPOA from which outgoing US President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.

In an 29th August 29 2020 opinion piece in The Atlantic titled “‘America First’ Enters its Most Combustible Moment,” Burns spelled out his objections.

 “Any leverage against Iran produced by the UAE-Israel agreement [the Abraham Accords between the United Arab Emirates and the Jewish state that subsequently were signed on 15th September 2020 at the White House] is already being swallowed up in the serial diplomatic malpractice of the administration’s ‘maximum pressure’ campaign – aimed more at toppling the Iranian regime than at changing its behavior,” he wrote. “Doubling down on failed policy is not a smart diplomatic prescription... but the Trump administration is not likely to see the light. Instead, it will continue to pretend that the United States can participate in only the punitive parts of the Iran nuclear deal... [a strategy that it] tried – and spectacularly failed at.”Nothing could be further from the truth. Trump’s “maximum-pressure campaign” is anything but “diplomatic malpractice.”

Antony Blinken, for instance – who, pending congressional confirmation, will replace Pompeo – is another JCPOA enthusiast. Blinken served under Obama, first as Deputy National Security advisor and then as deputy secretary of state. Like Burns, he was instrumental in formulating and promoting the deal. He also wants to lift sanctions against Tehran as one of those “goodwill gestures” that American multilateralists so love extending to the regimes.

He was clear about this in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA. In a thread of tweets on 9th May 2018, Blinken wrote, “By blowing up the Iran nuclear deal, President Trump puts us on a collision course with Iran and our closest allies. It gives Iranian hardliners the excuse to speed again toward the bomb without a united international coalition to oppose them or inspectors to expose them. Or if Iran and Europe stick with the deal, it forces us to sanction the latter to stop them from doing business with the former. Either way we lose.”

AS IF THIS weren’t an illustration of the degree to which Democrats misunderstand – or are willfully blind to – the mindset of the Iranian mullahs, Blinken goes on to make a ridiculous assertion. The cancellation of the JCPOA, he tweeted, “makes getting to yes with North Korea that much more challenging.

Cognizant of new reality, Israel is boosting its ability to combat Iranian forces and other proxy groups. The Democrats in the White House, State Department and Capitol building are lying in wait to lead the world, as Obama proudly did, “from behind.”

Joe Biden names his foreign policy team

US President-elect Joe Biden has named his top foreign policy staff on Monday. He announced, as expected, Antony Blinken would serve as secretary of state.

“We have no time to lose when it comes to our national security and foreign policy,” the president-elect said in a press release. “I need a team ready on Day One to help me reclaim America’s seat at the head of the table, rally the world to meet the biggest challenges we face, and advance our security, prosperity, and values.”

Biden also tapped former secretary of state and former senator, John Kerry, as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. He will sit on the National Security Council as well. “This marks the first time that the NSC will include an official dedicated to climate change, reflecting the president-elect’s commitment to addressing climate change as an urgent national security issue,” the transition team said in a press release.

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a veteran member of the Foreign Service, would serve as ambassador to the UN. Thomas-Greenfield served in many positions during her 35-year service, including as ambassador to Liberia. She was posted in Pakistan, Nigeria, Kenya, and at the US mission to the UN in Geneva. In 2013, she was appointed as assistant secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, where she led the policy on sub-Saharan Africa. Thomas-Greenfield also served as Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of human resources and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Population, Refugees and Migration Bureau.

Ambassador Barbara Bodine is the Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown, where Thomas-Greenfield was the inaugural Distinguished Resident Fellow in African Studies from 2017 to 2019. “She has a background and experience directly with multilateral institutions,” Bodine said. “After serving in Africa, as she has as assistant secretary and ambassador, she also has seen how multilateralism or multilateral collaboration is how we operate in the field, on the ground every day,” she added.

According to Bodine, the fact that her name came out at the same time as Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan and before all the other members of the administration, “signals that diplomacy is going to be a fundamental tool, not a secondary tool, and that we want to reengage credibly, collaboratively, with our partners, our friends and the rest of the world.”

She noted that Thomas-Greenfield is experienced in “conflict areas and worked on how you craft sustainable agreements to bring about peace.”

One important element for her work, Bodine noted, is that the US is going to chair the Security Council starting in March, which would require a knowledgeable person to hold the position. She added that Thomas-Greenfield doesn’t have experience with Israel or the Near East, “but she is going to represent the policy of the administration” when it comes to the region.

Biden also named Jake Sullivan as a national security adviser, according to media reports. Sullivan has gone a long way with Biden and Hillary Clinton. He advised Clinton during her 2008 primary bid and later Obama in his general-election bid. When Clinton was appointed secretary of state, Sullivan served as her deputy chief of staff and director of policy planning. When Clinton left the administration during Obama’s second term, he served as Biden’s top security aide. In 2016, he again advised Clinton during her presidential campaign. He was instrumental in shaping the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He had defended the agreement.

“Under the deal, Iran’s nuclear program was in a box, it was frozen,” Sullivan wrote. “Under the deal, there were no rocket attacks killing Americans in Iraq... Today, Iran is attacking shipping in the Gulf and threatening the rest of the region.”

In August, he spoke at a webinar hosted by Democratic Majority of Israel, and said that Biden believes that “it is not a concession of leverage to sit down with Iran at the bargaining table.”

Sullivan said that at the end of the day, “what has been proven out over the past few years is that the United States has immense capacity, through the financial sanctions tool, to very swiftly ratchet up pressure. We did that in the Obama administration; the Trump administration did it; Iran knows that.

“He fundamentally believes that there’s a way to interplay the diplomacy side of this equation and the pressure side of this equation in a way that will help us secure the objectives that we’re trying to achieve,” Sullivan added.

According to Sullivan, diplomacy backed by pressure that creates leverage “is the kind of formula that could work again to make progress, not just on the core nuclear issues, but on some of these other challenges as well.

“One of the vice president’s commitments and all of this is to get to the table to be able to negotiate a follow-on agreement that does materially advance the security of the United States, of Israel, and our other regional partners as well, and does hold Iran to account.

“And he believes that that is the best way to actually produce a durable outcome,” he added.

Sullivan – together with two other former Obama officials, ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and under-secretary of state Wendy Sherman – played a role in shaping the Democratic Party’s foreign-policy platform.

Following the signing of the Abraham Accords to normalize relations between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, Sullivan praised the move, saying the deal was a “positive accomplishment” for the president’s foreign policy.

“It’s good for the region, it’s good for Israel, it’s good for peace,” said Sullivan during an interview on the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery.