Blinken stresses US-Israel partnership – over Iran nuclear issue too

US Secretary of State Antony Blinker said on Tuesday that President Biden had asked him to visit Israel for four reasons: “To demonstrate his personal commitment to Israel’s security; to start to work toward greater stability and reduced tensions in the West Bank and Jerusalem”; to support “urgent humanitarian reconstruction assistance in Gaza”; and to “continue to rebuild our relationship with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian Authority.” Blinken added: The Talmud teaches, to lose a life is to lose the whole world, whether that life is Palestinian or Israeli.”

Speaking after meeting PM Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, he also pledged to “continue to strengthen all aspects of our longstanding partnership, and that includes consulting closely with Israel, as we did today, on the ongoing negotiations in Vienna around a potential return to the Iran nuclear agreement, at the same time as we continue to work together to counter Iran’s destabilizing actions in the region.”