BREAKING NEWS: Joe Biden finally calls Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu who tweets that the conversation ‘was friendly and warm’
Joe Biden has held his first phone call as president with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had friction with Barack Obama‘s administration and forged symbiotic relations with President Donald Trump.
The two men spoke for about an hour Wednesday, according to a statement by Netanyahu’s office.
The Israeli prime minister tweeted out news of the call before it was announced by the White House, along with an image of a smiling Netanyahu, nearly a month after Biden took office.
IN TOUCH: Joe Biden has held his first phone call as president with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday
‘The conversation was very friendly and warm and lasted about an hour. The two leaders noted their longstanding personal ties and said they would work together to further strengthen the strong relations between Israel and the United States,’ his office said.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said this week that Biden would dial the Israeli leader soon, and that he would be the first leader in the region Biden would speak with.
‘Stay tuned,’ Psaki said Tuesday, telling reporters the call would come ‘soon.’
She insisted the lack of a call in Biden’s nearly first month in office was not any kind of a snub while Biden got his administration up and running.
‘Israel is of course an ally. Israel is a country where we have an important strategic security relationship, and our team is fully engaged — not at the head of state level quite yet, but very soon, but our team is fully engaged, having constant conversations at many levels with the Israelis,’ said Psaki.
She also said the administration would ‘recalibrate’ its relations with Saudi Arabia, and indicated Trump would not speak directly with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump and his son in law Jared Kushner made a point of stressing close relations with the Saudis and other Gulf States, while Trump took several steps to demonstrate the closeness of the U.S. and Israel while also providing political benefits to Netanyahu while he fended off a series of domestic challenges.
Psaki said Biden and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman would speak ‘at an appropriate time.’
The White House had yet to immediately release a readout of the call.