Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden have held a long-awaited first phone call after a delay that had seen Washington deny it was snubbing Israel’s leader.
There had been speculation that the Democratic president was signalling displeasure over the conservative Netanyahu’s close ties with former president Donald Trump, who called the right-wing leader two days after his inauguration in 2017.
Biden has spoken with about a dozen other world leaders since taking office on January 20. The White House had said that Netanyahu would be the first Middle East leader he would call.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke for about an hour on Wednesday on issues including Iran and Israel’s budding relations with Arab and Muslim countries in the region, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
“President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed the continuation of peace agreements, the Iranian threat and challenges in the region, and agreed to continue talks between them,” the statement said.
“The two leaders noted their longstanding personal ties and said they would work together to further strengthen the strong relations between Israel and the United States,” the statement added.
They also spoke about ways to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, the statement said.
The White House had denied that the delay in a Biden courtesy call was meant to disrespect Netanyahu, with spokeswoman Jen Psaki saying last week that it was “not an intentional diss”.
Read the article in The West Australian (AAP).