The White House Friday sidestepped a question on whether Israel and Saudi Arabia are "important allies" of the United States.
After a back-and-forth with reporters during the daily White House briefing about President Biden's failure so far to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked:
"Can you please just give a broad sense of what the administration is trying to achieve in the Middle East? For example, does the administration still consider the Saudis and the Israelis important allies?"
Well, you know, again, I think, we, there are ongoing processes and internal interagency processes, one that we, I think confirmed an interagency meeting just last week to discuss a range of issues in the Middle East where we've only been here three and a half weeks.
"And I think I'm going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give kind of a complete lay down of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues."
The White House has faced growing questions over why Biden has failed to speak with the leader of Israel, a longtime strategic partner in the Middle East, since entering office more than three weeks ago.
he Biden administration is expected to take a different approach to U.S.-Israeli relations and will encourage a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.
Biden promised from the campaign trail to be hard on Saudi Arabia, particularly when it came to their involvement in Yemen’s six-year-long civil war.
"We were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are," Biden said during a 2019 Democratic primary debate. Adding that there is "very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/wh...r-israel-and-saudi-arabia-are-americas-allies
After a back-and-forth with reporters during the daily White House briefing about President Biden's failure so far to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked:
"Can you please just give a broad sense of what the administration is trying to achieve in the Middle East? For example, does the administration still consider the Saudis and the Israelis important allies?"
Well, you know, again, I think, we, there are ongoing processes and internal interagency processes, one that we, I think confirmed an interagency meeting just last week to discuss a range of issues in the Middle East where we've only been here three and a half weeks.
"And I think I'm going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give kind of a complete lay down of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues."
The White House has faced growing questions over why Biden has failed to speak with the leader of Israel, a longtime strategic partner in the Middle East, since entering office more than three weeks ago.
he Biden administration is expected to take a different approach to U.S.-Israeli relations and will encourage a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.
Biden promised from the campaign trail to be hard on Saudi Arabia, particularly when it came to their involvement in Yemen’s six-year-long civil war.
"We were going to in fact make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are," Biden said during a 2019 Democratic primary debate. Adding that there is "very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/wh...r-israel-and-saudi-arabia-are-americas-allies