US, Israel seek fresh reset of ties after years of tensions

WASHINGTON • United States President Joe Biden and visiting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are seeking to reset the tone of US-Israeli relations and find common ground on Iran despite differences on how to deal with its nuclear programme.

Israel's Army radio said their first White House meeting, which was scheduled for yesterday, had been delayed due to the bombings in Afghanistan yesterday.

In talks overshadowed by the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the two leaders will try to turn the page on years of tensions between Mr Bennett's predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu, who was close to former president Donald Trump and the last Democratic administration led by Mr Barack Obama with Mr Biden as his vice-president.

In what has been planned as a low-key meeting, Mr Bennett wants to move on from Mr Netanyahu's combative public style and instead manage disagreements constructively behind closed doors between Washington and its closest Middle East ally.

The visit gives Mr Biden an opportunity to demonstrate business as usual with a key partner while contending with the complex situation in Afghanistan. Mr Biden's biggest foreign policy crisis since taking office has not only hurt his approval ratings at home, but also raised questions about his credibility among both friends and foes.

Topping the agenda is Iran, one of the thorniest issues between the Biden administration and Israel. Mr Bennett, a far-right politician who ended Mr Netanyahu's 12-year run as prime minister in June, is expected to press Mr Biden to harden his approach to Iran and halt negotiations aimed at reviving the international nuclear deal that Mr Trump abandoned.

Mr Biden will tell Mr Bennett that he shares Israel's concern that Iran has expanded its nuclear programme but remains committed for now to diplomacy with Teheran, said a senior administration official.

US-Iran negotiations have stalled as Washington awaits the next move by Iran's new hardline president. Briefing reporters ahead of the meeting, the US official said: "Since the last administration left the Iran nuclear deal, Iran's nuclear programme has just dramatically broken out of the box."

The official said that if the diplomatic path with Iran fails, "there are other avenues to pursue", but did not elaborate.

Mr Bennett has been less openly combative, but just as adamant as Mr Netanyahu was in pledging to do whatever is necessary to prevent Iran, which Israel views as an existential threat, from building a nuclear weapon. Iran consistently denies it is seeking a bomb.

The two leaders are expected to speak briefly to a small pool of reporters during their Oval Office meeting but there will not be a joint news conference, limiting the potential for public disagreement.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Mr Biden and Mr Bennett are also divided. Mr Biden has renewed backing for a two-state solution after Mr Trump distanced himself from that longstanding tenet of US policy.

Mr Bennett opposes Palestinian statehood. The consensus among Mr Biden's aides is that now is not the time to push for a resumption of long-dormant peace talks or major Israeli concessions, which could destabilise Mr Bennett's ideologically diverse coalition.

But Mr Biden's aides have not ruled out asking Mr Bennett for modest gestures to help avoid a recurrence of the fierce Israel-Hamas fighting in the Gaza Strip that caught the new US administration flat-footed earlier this year.

Among the issues that could be raised in the talks was the Biden administration's goal of re-establishing a consulate in Jerusalem that served Palestinians and which Mr Trump closed. Mr Biden's aides have moved cautiously on the issue.

The administration has also emphasised that it opposes further expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land. Mr Bennett, 49, the son of American immigrants to Israel, has been a vocal proponent of settlement building.

REUTERS