The US and Israel, the official said, are working to reschedule a strategic dialogue on Iran. A meeting set for last week was scrapped following Netanyahu’s criticism.
REUTERS JUNE 26, 2024 23:13
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in this White House handout image taken in the Oval Office in Washington, U.S., April 4, 2024.(photo credit: The White House/Handout via REUTERS )US President Joe Biden’s top aides told the visiting Israeli defense chief this week that Washington is maintaining a pause on a shipment of heavy bombs for Israel while the issue is under review, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
The official, briefing reporters about national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s meeting with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, said the allies remain in discussions about the single shipment of powerful munitions, which was paused by Biden in May over concerns they could cause more Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza.
Without providing specifics, the official said other US weapons would continue to flow to Israel as it battles Hamas militants in Gaza and faces Lebanese Hezbollah fighters on its northern border, where escalating hostilities have spurred fears of a wider regional conflict.
Wrapping up his visit, Gallant said earlier on Wednesday that there had been significant progress on the issue of US munitions supply to Israel, adding that “obstacles were removed and bottlenecks were addressed.”
Gallant and US officials sought to cool tensions following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent claims that Washington was withholding weapons, prompting Biden’s aides to express disappointment and confusion over the Israeli leader’s remarks.
AN ISRAEL Air Force F-16I with a BLU-109 penetrating bunker-buster bomb under its wing; the bomb is wrapped with a JDAM kit. (credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
The United States in May paused a shipment of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs due to concern over the impact they could have in densely populated areas in Gaza in the war against Hamas, but Israel was still due to get billions of dollars worth of US weaponry.
“We are in discussions ultimately to find a resolution,” the senior US official said on condition of anonymity. “But I think the president has expressed his concerns about that one shipment, and those are very valid concerns,”
Content retrieved from: https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-807945.
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