Israel Security Agency chief Ronen Bar met with senior Biden administration officials in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to address U.S. concerns about the stability of the Palestinian Authority, according to Israeli media reports.
The D.C. trip comes against the backdrop of a series of deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis in recent months, including the killing on May 30 near Hermesh of Meir Tamari. It also comes several weeks after an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire ended five days of fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer were also in Washington last week, for talks with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Those meetings focused on “a broad range of global and regional issues of mutual concern,” according to the White House.
Sullivan also reaffirmed Washington’s goal “of further enhancing Israel’s security and economic integration throughout the Middle East” and “stressed the need to take additional steps to improve the lives of Palestinians, critical to realizing a more peaceful, prosperous, and integrated region,” the White House said in a statement.
Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, 87, said last month that any effort to replace the PLO at a time of challenges to the terrorist organization’s authority by Hamas and PIJ would fail.
