Lapid takes office after the Knesset approved its dissolution and calling elections on November 1
July 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The new prime minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, and the president of the United States, Joe Biden, stressed this Friday that the ties between the two countries “are unbreakable”, hours after Lapid took office after the dissolution of the Knesset and the call for new early elections on November 1.
Biden congratulated Lapid on his appointment and thanked former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for “his friendship” during his year in office. “I hope to see you in July to celebrate the unbreakable partnership between the United States and Israel,” she added.
In response, Lapid has indicated in his account on the social network that relations with Washington “are based on deep pillars of shared values and a common vision of the future.”
The Israeli prime minister, who also remains in charge of the Foreign Ministry, has stressed that he hopes to “welcome” Biden in Israel to “strengthen the unique alliance” between the two countries.
Biden will start a tour of the Middle East on July 13 that will take him for the first time since he took office to Israel and the West Bank, where he plans to reiterate his “strong support” for the two-state solution to achieve peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and that will also include a stopover in Saudi Arabia.
For his part, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, sent Lapid his “warm congratulations” on the appointment and expressed his hope of “working closely” with him “to promote all aspects of the lasting partnership between United States and Israel and confront shared threats.”
“At the same time, I want to recognize Bennett for his leadership as Prime Minister of Israel over the past year and thank him for his continued efforts as the rotating Prime Minister and Minister of Religious Affairs. The ties between the United States and Israel have never been stronger. strong,” he stressed.
In this sense, Blinken has emphasized that “Israel has no better friend than the United States.” “Our commitment to the security of Israel remains unshakable,” she stressed, as reported by the State Department in a statement posted on its website.
On his first day in office, Lapid is scheduled to meet with the head of the Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, and hold a meeting about the two Israelis being held in the Gaza Strip by the Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas), according to ‘The Times of Israel’.
Lapid assumed his powers at midnight on Thursday after a transfer of powers ceremony held after the Israeli Parliament approved its dissolution and the calling of elections after the fall of the government coalition due to its internal disputes and lost its slim majority in the Knesset little more than a year after its creation.
The Israeli Executive lost its slim majority — which reached 61 seats when the Executive was formed — amid major tensions within the coalition, which finally led Bennett and Lapid to announce on June 20 that his efforts to keep the Executive assembled have been unsuccessful.
The current government took power in June 2021 after twelve consecutive years of Netanyahu as Prime Minister of Israel. The coalition, however, is made up of eight parties that cover the entire political spectrum after a historic agreement to avoid new elections, after four elections had to be held in two years due to the inability to form majorities.
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