(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met today (Wednesday, 25 August 2021), in Washington with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Following is an excerpt of his remarks at the beginning of the meeting:
"I appreciate you taking time in pretty hectic days here in the States. It means a lot.
“Israel has no stronger and more reliable ally than the United States of America. From our inception and to this day, especially these days, you are always with us, you have our back and that matters a lot to us.
“I can assure you that you'll find no friend which is more reliable and appreciative than us.
“I bring from Israel a new spirit, a spirit of folks who sometimes harbor different opinions but work together in cooperation, in good will, in a spirit of unity and we work hard to find common things that we do agree upon and move forward on it. It seems to be working.
“This is the same spirit that I want to bring to our relationship of cooperation, of goodwill, of friendship.
“We're going to be talking about a bunch of issues, primarily how do we fend off and curtail Iran's pursuit to dominate the region and its race to a nuclear weapon.
“We will also talk about regional stability and climate change, which is an issue for all of us.
“I'm looking forward to having a very good relationship with you.
“I appreciate the time."