Biden will meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN next week, but NOT at the White House after Israeli president hosted Oval Office meeting: report
Biden will meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN next week, but NOT at the White House after Israeli president hosted Oval Office meeting: report
- Netanyahu will fly to California and then visit New York for UN meetings
- He urged a meeting at the White House with Biden
- Axios reports that a planned “sideline” meeting will follow an internal debate
President Joe Biden will meet Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations next week after pushing back on the Israeli prime minister’s attempts to organize an Oval Office meeting, a new report shows.
The less formal one-on-one comes amid an effort by thousands of Israeli academics and artists to shun Biden and the UN secretary general to shun Natanyahu amid his controversial judicial review.
But Biden also faces opposing currents at home, where Republicans, including former President Donald Trump have accused him of growing the distance between the historic allies amid ongoing tensions and Netanyahu’s coalition with right-wing parties.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed for an Oval Office meeting with Biden during his trip to the US. Instead, he will get a meeting on the “sidelines” of the UN General Assembly in New York, Axios reported
The decision to meet Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN – where the president traditionally meets with several leaders – follows an internal debate and a pressure campaign by the Israelis. Axios reported.
But the White House has told Netanyahu he will hold a meeting at the White House later this year Times of Israel reported.
Biden has said Netanyahu, who returned to power nine months ago, is leading an “extreme” Israeli government.
Officials said Netanyahu pushed Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Micahel Herzog, before the meeting and sought a meeting in the Oval Office, where the men have previously met, the report said.
The meeting has not yet been officially confirmed for next week’s UNGA meetings.
With no White House meeting scheduled, Netanyahu is scheduled to fly to California’s Silicon Valley ahead of his trip to New York.
Israel’s Supreme Court this week heard for the first time a challenge to Netanyahu’s judicial review, which critics say would weaken the Supreme Court and reduce checks on Netanyahu’s executive power.
The White House decision comes amid deep divisions over politics in Israel. Here, Israelis protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the justice system and in support of the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, Monday, September 11, 2023.
The UN meetings come days after Israel’s Supreme Court met for the first time in the country’s history in a hearing with all Israeli Supreme Court judges to consider the legality of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial review.
The move by his right-wing government, which also includes ultranationalist factions, has sparked street protests and angry clashes.
Biden’s confrontation with Netanyahu comes as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said his country will use $6 billion in released funds “where we need it,” rejecting a constraint in negotiations with the US that limits the money to ‘humanitarian purposes’.
Raisi’s comments, in a conversation with NBC The news in Tehran comes a day after the Biden administration announced an extraordinary deal that would release five detained Americans and swap them for Iranian prisoners in the US, while freeing up funding for Tehran.
In the interview, Raisi told the network’s Lester Holt that the needs of the Iranian people would be determined “by the Iranian government,” after being specifically asked if this would be for humanitarian purposes, including food and medicine, in a country that hit by crippling inflation. amid economic sanctions.
The government said the funds would be monitored to ensure they are for humanitarian purposes only.