Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in Washington late Tuesday night local time ahead of a meeting with US President Joe Biden Thursday. The premier was greeted by US Deputy Chief of Protocol at the State Department Mark Walsh as well as Israeli Ambassador to the US and the UN Gilad Erdan.
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In remarks to the media before boarding the plane for the US, Bennett said: "There is a new administration in the US and a new government in Israel, and I am bringing with me from Jerusalem a new spirit of cooperation, which rests on the special and long-standing connection between the two countries.
Bennett said that in their talks, he and the US leader would "deal with many fronts, especially the Iranian front, and especially the jump in the Iranian nuclear program over the past two or three years. In particular, we will discuss the plan to block this program."
According to the Prime Minister's Office, he added talks would also focus on "several actions to strengthen the Israeli military superiority. Alongside this, we will also deal with the spheres of high-tech, the economy, innovation, the climate crisis that disturbs us all, and – of course – the fight against the coronavirus."
He said, "I intend to share with President Biden the knowledge and insights we have accumulated in the campaign here in the State of Israel regarding the third dose of the vaccine, which I am pleased [to say] has already crossed the threshold of 1.5 million people who have been inoculated."
At a weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Bennett noted the timing of his meeting with Biden was "very important because we're at a critical point when it comes to Iran."
"Iran is progressing quickly on uranium enrichment, and the time it will take Iran to accumulate enough material for a single nuclear bomb has been shortened considerably," Bennett said.
Stressing his opposition to a new nuclear agreement between Iran and the west, he told cabinet members: "Iran is behaving aggressively and bullying the entire region. I'll tell President Biden that this is the time to top the Iranians, put a stop to this, and not throw them a lifeline in the form of rejoining a nuclear deal that has already run out. It's no longer relevant, even to those who once thought it was."
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