Although Netanyahu has expressed his concerns, Biden still firmly believes that a two-state solution is the right path. “We’re not going to agree on every issue,” Kirby said. Good friends and allies could have this kind of open and honest discussion.
Netanyahu on Thursday rejected a Palestinian state after the end of the war in Gaza, in open contradiction with the US. Eyeing a two-state solution at the request of the US, Netanyahu said he must be able to say “no” when necessary, even to his best friends.
debate
Middle East: What will the future of the region be like?
“No, she is not”
Kirby has now said that this will not change Biden's view that the best long-term solution for regional security, especially the security of the Israeli people, is a free and independent Palestinian state. The US would continue to promote it.
Biden was optimistic, at least publicly. When asked by a reporter at an event in Washington on Friday afternoon (local time) whether a two-state solution would be impossible while Netanyahu was in power, Biden responded, according to press reports: “No, it is not. “He thinks it is possible to find a solution. There are “different types of two-state solutions.”
Portal/Leah Millis Kirby briefed members of the press on Biden's conversation with Netanyahu
Biden welcomes approval of flour deliveries
According to information from Washington, the conversation also covered other topics, such as the transition from the Israeli offensive to more targeted military operations, which aim to provide increasingly more humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip – while maintaining pressure on the Hamas leadership. Islamic.
Biden also addressed Israel's responsibility to reduce harm to civilians and protect the innocent. The US President welcomed the Israeli government's decision to allow the delivery of flour through the port of Ashdod. Teams from both countries worked separately on options for more direct delivery of aid by sea to the Gaza Strip.
Ashdod is about 40 kilometers from the border with Gaza. The Mediterranean city is regularly bombarded with rockets by Hamas from Palestinian territory. Three UN organizations recently called on Israel to make its Ashdod port available for humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. The use of Ashdod is “urgently needed” by humanitarian organizations.
Borrell with harsh criticism of Netanyahu
In a speech at the university in the Spanish city of Valladolid, on Friday night, the head of EU foreign policy, Josep Borrell, spoke out in favor of “imposing from outside” a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. Netanyahu himself has been “boycotting” a two-state solution for 30 years, Borrell continued. In this context, the head of EU foreign policy also accused Netanyahu of having financed Hamas “to weaken the Fatah Palestinian Authority”.
The Gaza war began on October 7 with a brutal and unprecedented attack on Israel by the Palestinian radical Islamic organization Hamas. This has been going on for about three and a half months. In recent years, millions of dollars have flowed from Qatar to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Critics accuse Netanyahu of approving these payments and thus supporting the financing of Hamas, which the head of government denies.
Branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood
Hamas was founded shortly after the start of the first intifada, in December 1987. The movement emerged as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and saw itself as a counterpoint to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It initially operated as a purely charitable organization, establishing schools and other social institutions, which gained it great popularity among the impoverished population of the Gaza Strip and led to its victory in the last parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories in 2006.
Subsequently, rivalries with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party intensified. After fighting with Fatah fighters, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007.