The new US administration expressed its intention to cooperate with Israel on regional security issues and "build on normalization agreements," while the government of the United Arab Emirates announced today, Sunday, its approval of the opening of an embassy in Tel Aviv.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement released today, Sunday, that he told his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben Shabat, in a phone call yesterday that President Joe Biden's administration will work closely with Israel on security and the normalization of relations in the Middle East.
The statement said that the two officials "discussed opportunities to strengthen the partnership in the coming months, and that includes building on the success of the Israeli normalization agreements with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco."
The statement added that Sullivan issued a call to initiate a strategic dialogue in the near term.
This comes in light of indications that the Biden administration is not keen at the present time to back away from the decisions taken by his predecessor Donald Trump's administration in favor of the Israeli occupation, such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Washington, Ahmed Hazeem, referred to the testimony of the new US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken before the Senate as part of the procedures for approving his appointment, where he said that the new administration will work slowly to rebuild confidence between the two parties to the conflict to reach after that a plan or proposal to launch negotiations.
The reporter added that the Biden administration did not show any sign of a new and radically different approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict compared to Trump's policies, except for its support for the two-state solution.
Meanwhile, the UAE government said on its Twitter account that the Council of Ministers approved today the establishment of the UAE embassy in Tel Aviv.
This came in the first meeting of the Council of Ministers this year.
In mid-September, the two sides signed an agreement to normalize relations in the White House, sponsored by former US President Donald Trump.