In typical Psaki fashion, the White House Press Secretary dodged yet another question on Friday. This time she refused to acknowledge Israel and Saudi Arabia as being important allies of the United States. Her excuse is that the administration has only been in office for three weeks.
“Well, again, I think there are ongoing processes and internal inter-agency processes. One that we, I think, confirmed, an inter-agency meeting just last week to discuss a range of issues in the Middle East. We’ve only been here three and a half weeks. And I think I’m going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give kind of a complete lay down of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues,” was Psaki’s response.
Earlier in the press conference, a different reporter asked why President Biden didn’t call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The reporter said that Biden’s actions, or lack thereof, were seen as an “international dis” by Israelis.
Psaki responded, “It is not an intentional dis. “Obviously, we have a long and important relationship with Israel, and the president has known him and has been working on a range of issues that there’s a mutual commitment to for some time. It is just a reflection of the fact that we have been here three and a half weeks, he’s not called every single global leader yet, and he is eager to do that in the weeks ahead.”
The reporter fired back, “But he has called every other major ally in Europe and Asia.”
“He’s called many of them,” Psaki responded. Some would argue they haven’t received calls yet, and they are still eager to receive them.”