Biden envoy tells Netanyahu his comments on US-supplied weapons were 'unproductive' and 'completely false'

Lina Portman2 weeks ago

0 3 minutes read

Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO/Handout/Getty Images

Amos Hochstein (L), senior advisor to U.S. President Joe Biden, meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) in West Jerusalem on June 17, 2024. (Photo by Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

CNN
—

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in Israel on Tuesday that his public comments this week that the United States is “withholding arms and ammunition from Israel” were “unproductive” and “More importantly, completely false,” a senior official said. » a US official told CNN.

At the same meeting, US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew also reiterated to Netanyahu that his comments were not correct, reviewing all the weapons the US has transferred to Israel in recent months, according to two senior American officials. A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Israel confirmed that Lew spoke with Netanyahu on Tuesday. The spokesperson reiterated that “with the exception of ongoing discussions regarding large diameter munitions, other items are either delivered, in the process of being delivered, or under normal review.”

Axios first reported on the exchange between Hochstein and Netanyahu.

The meeting reflected the administration's growing frustration with the Israeli leader's comments. Another senior administration official told CNN that the Israeli prime minister's public statement was “confusing” and “false.”

This is not the first time that Netanyahu has publicly castigated the Biden administration over the war between Israel and Hamas, but this week's public conflict comes as the stakes surrounding the war in Gaza and a possible new conflict between Israel and Hezbollah remain incredibly high. Israel's prime minister and President Joe Biden are both facing growing political pressure at home over their handling of the war.

Hochstein's comments to Netanyahu are not the first time U.S. officials have privately objected to public comments made by Netanyahu, but some U.S. officials would like the Biden administration to go further, an administration official said .

That frustration appears to have led the United States to postpone a meeting of the U.S.-Israel Strategic Consultative Group (SDG) originally scheduled for Thursday, where Iran was on the agenda, according to a senior administration official. But that official and a White House official disputed that the meeting was moved in response to comments made by Netanyahu and stressed that it had never been confirmed. Meetings between U.S. and Israeli officials this week, including Wednesday, are expected to continue, according to the first official, and the Thursday meeting in question will likely be postponed — perhaps as early as next week.

Yet another senior U.S. official insisted that Thursday's meeting was pulled from the schedule to send a message to Netanyahu, in the same way that the Israeli leader canceled a March visit to the United States delegation to protest against American abstention on a key point. UN vote, the official said.

“We have been working to find a time to plan the next SDG that takes into account travel and director availability, but we have not yet completely finalized the details, so nothing has been canceled,” an official said from the White House to CNN. “Meanwhile, meetings with Israeli officials are taking place throughout the week at expert and senior level on a range of topics. As we said in yesterday's briefing, we have no idea what the Prime Minister is talking about, but that is no reason to postpone a meeting.”

Netanyahu publicly asserted that the Biden administration was “holding back the guns” in a video posted on strangulation”.

America's top diplomat declined to discuss his conversation with Netanyahu last week, saying he was “not going to talk about what we said in diplomatic conversations.”

“I can just say, once again, that we are committed to ensuring that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against a range of threats,” he told a conference on Tuesday. press. He also confirmed that a shipment of heavy bombs remained on standby.

“We continue to move these different files through our system in a regular order,” Blinken said, noting that “it takes a long time to move these things, and a number of things that go to Israel are not going to get there.” before years.” .”