National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s meetings with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken were largely overshadowed by the ongoing public spat between their two governments that was sparked by a Tuesday video statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which the premier blasted what he said were “inconceivable bottlenecks” that the Biden administration had placed in the transfer of weapons and munitions to Israel.
The White House fiercely denied the charge on Tuesday, saying it has only withheld one shipment, while all others were continuing. Shortly before Hanegbi and Dermer arrived at the White House on Thursday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby doubled down on the administration’s frustration, calling it “vexing and disappointing to us as much as it was incorrect.”
The White House did not issue a readout of the meeting Netanyahu’s top aides held with Sullivan and one issued by the State Department after their sit-down with Blinken was a regurgitation of long-held US talking points regarding the Israel-Hamas war.
Blinken “reiterated the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” the State Department readout said, adding that the trio discussed the ongoing talks to secure a hostage deal and ceasefire agreement. Those negotiations have been stuck since Hamas responded to Israel’s latest proposal last week with a long list of amendments. The US has said some of the changes are workable, while others are not. Qatari and Egyptian mediators have since been in talks with Hamas aimed at convincing the terror group to come down from its demands.
The top US diplomat “emphasized the need to take additional steps to surge humanitarian aid into Gaza and plan for post-conflict governance, security, and reconstruction,” the US readout said. READ MORE
