US President Joe Biden will land in Israel on Wednesday (13), the first leg of a trip to the Middle East, where he will need to demonstrate his diplomatic skills in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tensions with Iran and oil negotiations with Saudi Arabia.
The US presidential plane Air Force One is expected to land at 15:30 local time (9:30 Brasília) at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, where Biden will be received by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
After Israel, the 79-year-old American president will visit Saudi Arabia on Friday. The presidential plane will make an unprecedented direct flight between the Hebrew state and the conservative Gulf kingdom, which does not recognize Israel. The presidential plane will make an unprecedented direct flight between the Hebrew state and the conservative Gulf kingdom, which does not recognize Israel.
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Earlier, Biden will meet with Israeli officials to try to strengthen cooperation against Iran. He will also have a meeting with Palestinian leaders, frustrated that Washington is not stopping Israeli aggression.
Iran and Israel were allies when Biden first visited the region in 1973 when he was a senator, but now the Hebrew state considers Tehran its main threat. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who took office two weeks ago, said that talks with Biden will address “primarily the Iran issue.”
The Israeli military will show Biden its new Iron Beam system, an anti-drone laser that is considered crucial to counter Iran’s drones. Israel insists that it will do whatever is necessary to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and is opposed to returning to the 2015 nuclear deal, which eased sanctions against Tehran.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi responded that Biden’s trip will not bring security to Israel. “If visits by US government officials to countries in the region should strengthen the Zionist regime’s position and normalize its relations with some countries, their efforts will not bring security” to Israel, he said in a statement.
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US flags were scattered to celebrate the first visit by a president of the country since Republican Donald Trump’s trip in 2017. Since coming to power, Biden has not reversed his predecessor’s controversial decision to recognize this city as Israel’s capital.
The Palestinians consider East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel, their capital, and prior to the visit, they accused Biden of failing to fulfill his promise to make the U.S. government again an impartial mediator in the conflict.
Biden will meet on Friday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, but no major announcement is expected for the resumption of the peace process.
Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia is considered part of an effort to stabilize oil markets, affected by the war in Ukraine, by reaching out to a country that for decades was a strategic ally of the United States and a major oil supplier.
Biden went so far as to label Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state after the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who lived in the United States.
