Biden to speak with Israel’s Netanyahu soon — White House

US President Joe Biden holds a meeting with US Senators about infrastructure improvements in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, Feb. 11, 2021. (AFP)

• White House says no ‘specific date’ yet for call, underlining an apparent distancing
• Biden will address a virtual edition of the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 19.

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden plans to speak with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu soon, but has no “specific” plan to do so yet, the White House said Thursday, underlining an apparent distancing in the key relationship.
Three weeks into his presidency, Biden has pointedly reached out to a raft of traditional US allies but kept some leaders who were particularly cozy with his predecessor Donald Trump at arm’s length.
Biden’s failure to include Netanyahu so far in his calls with foreign leaders has raised eyebrows in Israel and among Middle East experts. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Trump both spoke to him within days of taking office.
“The president looks forward to speaking with Prime Minister Netanyahu; he’s obviously somebody that he has a long-standing relationship with,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a news briefing.
Having been in lockstep with Trump for four years, Netanyahu will likely be challenged by any Biden departure from Trump’s tough policy on Iran and toward the Palestinians.
Biden has pledged to restore US involvement in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal — which Trump had pulled out of — and likely opposition by the White House to Israeli settlement of occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood.
Trump delighted Netanyahu by quitting the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposing sanctions on it that had been lifted in return for limits on activities that could, potentially, produce nuclear weapons in the future.
Meanwhile, Psaki also said Biden will address a virtual edition of the annual Munich Security Conference on Feb. 19.
Biden attended the Munich Security Conference in 2009 and 2015 as US vice president and met Chancellor Angela Merkel at the annual gathering.
The Munich conference, the so-called ‘Davos for Defense’, is a major venue for transatlantic, foreign and security policy dialogue. Merkel has promised the new US president greater German foreign policy engagement. 
(With AFP and Reuters)