Biden, Netanyahu hold long-awaited first call

WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid any tensions to rest on Wednesday by finally holding their first phone call since the change of administration in Washington.

Netanyahu was one of the last foreign leaders to get a call from Biden, who took office on Jan 20, despite Israel's special relationship with the United States.

Both sides stressed their close ties during the call, which Biden told reporters was a "good conversation".

The White House said Biden registered "support" for a series of agreements brokered by his predecessor Donald Trump on normalizing relations between Israel and Arab countries.

Biden "affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel's security and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the US-Israel partnership, including our strong defense cooperation", a White House statement said.

In their own statement, Netanyahu's media adviser called the talk "very warm and friendly" and lasting about an hour.

"The two leaders noted their long-standing personal connection" and agreed to strengthen the countries' alliance, the statement added.

The Israeli prime minister and the US president "discussed the future advancement of the peace accords, the Iranian threat and regional challenges, and agreed to continue their dialogue".

Placing Netanyahu far down on the list for calls was widely interpreted as Biden's way of signaling a reset in US-Middle East relations following the Trump era.

The Republican often boasted of being what he called the most "pro-Israel" president in US history. He closely followed Netanyahu's priorities, including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem-a move seen as provocative by many other countries.

The perception of a cold shoulder irked Netanyahu's Likud Party.

'Snubbing' ally

Danny Danon, head of Likud's global wing, recently tweeted a list of Biden's conversations with leaders and asked: "Might it now be time to call the leader of Israel, the closest ally of the US?"

Nikki Haley, Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations, accused the Biden administration of "snubbing" Israel.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that Netanyahu was not being ignored, but indicated that he was not exactly on the front burner.

"Let me confirm for you that his first call with a leader in the region will be Prime Minister Netanyahu," she said."I don't have an exact date for you but it is soon."

Despite the back-to-normal nature of the phone call, Biden's Middle East agenda is already taking a sharp turn from the one that made Trump so popular with Netanyahu.

Crucially, Trump withdrew from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers to keep Teheran's nuclear industry under close monitoring in exchange for relaxing crippling sanctions on the country.

This pleased Israel, which insists that Iran is working toward a nuclear weapon-a claim denied by Iran.

Biden has said he wants to return to the deal in some form, calling Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran a failure.

Agencies Via Xinhua