US President Joe Biden and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday celebrated the settling of the disputed Israel-Lebanon maritime border and said they would discuss the growing threat to Ukraine from Russia’s Iranian-supplied war drones.
Sitting alongside Herzog in the White House Oval Office, Biden praised Israel for reaching a long-delayed accord with Lebanon on the sea border. The deal was brokered by the United States.
Biden hailed the “historic breakthrough.”
“It took a lot of courage for you to step up and step into it,” he told Herzog. “It took some real guts. It took principled and persistent diplomacy to get it done.”
Biden said the newly agreed border would allow both countries to develop energy fields and it would “create new hope and economic opportunities.”
The visit came amid tension over the future of Iran’s nuclear activities, with the Biden administration trying to salvage a deal that would reinstate international control over the civilian program in exchange for sanctions relief. Israel opposes the push.
Ukraine, where the United States is leading international efforts to help the pro-Western country repel a Russian invasion, also featured.
Israel has been reluctant to get involved, despite pleas from Ukraine. But Herzog’s trip underlined Israeli concern at the growing role of Iran, which is accused of supplying fleets of deadly drones used by Russia against Ukrainian civilian targets.
Iran is “moving towards nuclear weapons and supplying lethal weapons that are killing innocent citizens in Ukraine and I think the Iranian challenge will be a major challenge to be discussed,” Herzog said.
On Tuesday Herzog met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and announced he was sharing intelligence to prove that Iran has been supplying military drones to the Russians.
“Iranian weapons play a key role in destabilizing our world, and the international community must learn its lessons, now and in the future,” Herzog said.
Herzog indicated that Biden would be attending the COP27 climate summit in Egypt next month — something not yet confirmed by the White House — and said the climate crisis “can serve as a common denominator for so many nations.”
Herzog’s visit comes days ahead of Israel’s fifth election in less than four years in which hawkish ex-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had tense relations with Democratic US administrations, is seeking a comeback.
It also comes less than two weeks before Americans vote in the midterm elections that are predicted to strip Biden’s Democrats of their control of Congress.
“We have elections in Israel and you’re having midterm elections in the United States but one thing is clear — I think this visit epitomizes that our friendship, our strong bond transcends all political differences,” Herzog told Biden.
