United States President Joe Biden touched down in Israel on Wednesday to begin a four-day Middle East visit, the first in his presidency, that would include meetings with the leaders of Israel, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia.
In a ceremony at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport, Biden was formally welcomed and given a briefing on Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam air defense systems, according to a report from AP News.
Additionally, he was scheduled in Jerusalem to partake in a wreath-laying ceremony at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust monument.
Before visiting Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, on Friday in the West Bank, Biden will spend two days in Jerusalem for discussions with Israeli authorities.
On Friday, he will take a direct flight from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to meet with Saudi leaders and Gulf allies.
Biden reportedly would attempt to pressure Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing Gulf allies to pump more oil to help ease the strain of rising global gas and food costs driven by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Biden To Pitch Iran Nuclear Deal Revival to Israel, Saudi Arabia
Another primary agenda of President Biden during his Middle East Trip is to reassure Israeli and Saudi Arabian authorities that the US is serious about preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Since Biden took office, reviving the Iran nuclear agreement, negotiated by Barack Obama in 2015 and scrapped by Donald Trump in 2018, has been included in his priorities.
In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Saturday, Biden ripped at Trump for withdrawing from the nuclear agreement that the European Union, including Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China, had signed. However, Biden exhibited optimism that the Iranians would resume compliance.
Biden wrote in his column: "My administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, as I remain prepared to do."
On Monday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told the media that the stability in the Middle East has improved during the Biden administration. He claimed that the U.S. seeks "a region with more stability and with fewer wars that could draw the United States in," as NPR reported.
US Collaborates with Isreal To Boost, Protect Technologies
Hours before President Joe Biden's arrival in Tel-Aviv, Israel and the United States announced on Wednesday the formation of a bilateral committee to boost technology partnership.
According to a joint statement released by the White House, the Strategic High-Level Dialogue on Technology will be tasked with presenting solutions to major global challenges like pandemic preparedness, climate change, utilizing artificial intelligence, and securing trusted technology ecosystems.
Representatives from numerous agencies in both countries will participate in the collaboration, which will be managed by the respective national security councils, as per a report from The Times of Israel. The US and Israel will alternate in hosting the annual meeting of the bilateral committee. This fall, Israel will host the first session.
The US is putting increased pressure on Israel to limit its technological cooperation with China, even though the two nations have already signed several bilateral agreements in this field.
China has expressed interest in Israeli advances, particularly in medical tech, robotics, food tech, and artificial intelligence, amid a trade conflict between Washington and Beijing.
The main concerns of the US are the areas of possible dual-use technology or those with both civilian and military applications.
