Jerusalem is currently in talks with the kingdoms of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in establishing a four-nation defense alliance, according to an exclusive i24NEWS report.
Unnamed Israeli officials who spoke with i24NEWS would not confirm the details of the report, but added that “Israel is constantly working to improve its relations with its Arab neighbors.”
US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoke on Wednesday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our nations and Congress’s unwavering support for a safe and secure Israel.”
Pelosi said that she discussed “COVID-19 response and our shared hope for regional peace, including a just, stable and enduring two-state solution.”
Netanyahu’s office has yet to comment on the conversation.
This conversation came a few days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi in a discussion that focused on the defunct peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Blinken addressed the US approach towards “a more peaceful, secure, and prosperous future for Israelis, Palestinians, and the greater Middle East.”
He also emphasized the Biden Administration’s “belief that the two-state solution is the best way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, living in peace alongside a viable and democratic Palestinian state.”
A secretive nuclear facility at the center of Israel’s undeclared atomic weapons program is undergoing what appears to be its biggest construction project in decades, The Associated Press reported on Thursday.
A dig about the size of a soccer field and likely several stories deep now sits just meters (yards) from the aging reactor at the Shimon Peres Negev Nuclear Research Center near the city of Dimona, satellite photos show. Reportedly, the facility is already home to decades-old underground laboratories that reprocess the reactor’s spent rods to obtain weapons-grade plutonium for Israel’s nuclear bomb program.
What the construction is for, however, remains unclear. The government did not respond to detailed questions from the AP about the work. Under its policy of nuclear ambiguity, Israel neither confirms nor denies having atomic weapons. It is among just four countries that have never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty, a landmark international accord meant to stop the spread of nuclear arms.
