US President Joe Biden took advantage of South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Washington on Friday, May 21 to speak on two sensitive foreign policy issues: the situation in the Middle East, and the denuclearization of North Korea.
The new tenant of the White House notably asserted, during a press conference, that the two-state solution – an independent Palestine alongside Israel – was “The only answer” possible to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “There is no change in my commitment to the security of Israel, period. No change at all ”, assured Mr. Biden:
“The change is that we still need a two state solution. It’s the only way. “
These statements come the day after the announcement of a fragile ceasefire temporarily ending eleven days of clashes between the Jewish state and the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
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“Major” financial aid for Gaza
The Democratic President also announced his intention to set up financial aid “Major” with the help of the international community to “Rebuild Gaza” But “Without giving Hamas the opportunity to rebuild its weapons system”.
“I let the Israelis know that I consider it very important that they put an end to these clashes in Jerusalem between communities which are the work of extremists on both sides”, added Mr. Biden. The violence that has erupted in mixed towns in Israel and East Jerusalem is mainly due to threats to evict Palestinian families for the benefit of Jewish settlers.
U.S. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken to visit Middle East “In the coming days”, announced Thursday the State Department, after the announcement of the ceasefire.
Despite the truce, new clashes erupted on Friday between Palestinian worshipers and Israeli police on the Mosques Esplanade, Islam’s third holiest site, in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian sector occupied by Israel, injuring around 20 Palestinians. . Since May 10, violence has left more than 243 dead on the Palestinian side, including 66 children, and 12 on the Israeli side, including a 6-year-old Israeli child and a 16-year-old Arab Israeli teenager and her father.
A “pragmatic” approach to North Korea
On the thorny issue of North Korea, Joe Biden pleaded for an approach “Pragmatic”, while recognizing that the negotiations on the denuclearization of the reclusive regime would be extremely delicate.
“We have no illusions about the difficulty of the task, absolutely none. The last four administrations did not meet the target. It’s an incredibly difficult goal ”, he said alongside his South Korean counterpart.
Announcing that he had appointed seasoned diplomat Sung Kim as special envoy, the US president did not rule out meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un one day but stressed that he would not do so without clear commitments from the latter.
He took the opportunity to criticize the approach of his predecessor Donald Trump who had met “Chairman Kim” twice – in Singapore in June 2018 and then in Hanoi in February 2019 – without achieving tangible results.
“I will not offer him international recognition [sans contreparties] “, insisted Mr. Biden who has already rejected the approaches of his two direct predecessors: Donald Trump and his search for a “Big deal”, and Baraka Obama, follower of the “Strategic patience”. But he did not reveal his game on Friday and confined himself to very general formulas, pleading for progress “Pragmatic” to reduce tensions and get closer to the ” ultimate goal “ : “The denuclearization of North Korea”.
Breaking the dialogue
The South Korean president, who had been the architect of the mediation between Pyongyang and Washington during the presidency Trump, hopes to use the last year of his mandate to finally arrive at a “Irreversible peace” on the peninsula. He rented, on Friday, the “Desire for dialogue” from Washington. But how do you get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table when the dialogue is already broken off? The reclusive regime has already denounced diplomacy “Hostile” and “Fallacious” of the new administration.
Despite being hit by multiple international sanctions, Pyongyang has rapidly developed its military capabilities in recent years under the leadership of Kim Jong -un, carrying out several nuclear tests and successfully testing ballistic missiles.
The White House assures that it wants to rely, among other things, on the joint declaration of the Singapore summit in 2018. This brief document referred to the “Complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula”, but this vague formulation had given rise to very different interpretations on the part of the two parties.
Proof of the region’s importance to Washington, Moon Jae-in is only the second leader to be received in person at the White House after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.