US Holds First Meeting With Israel’s New FM Amid Iran Moves

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Israel’s new top diplomat Yair Lapid on Sunday, in the United States’ first face-to-face meeting with the recently installed government that seeks a less combative approach with its main ally Washington.

Lapid, a centrist who delayed his own plans to be prime minister as he masterminded a coalition to unseat veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu, is flying to Rome to see Blinken, who arrives in Italy on Sunday on a three-nation tour of Europe.

The meeting comes as President Joe Biden’s administration moves ahead with fresh talks on reviving a 2015 accord with Iran in which Tehran drastically scaled back nuclear work in return for promises of sanctions relief.

This move has been strongly opposed by Israel.

Biden and Blinken are also eager to preserve a fragile ceasefire that took effect on May 21 between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the worst fighting since 2014.

Lapid, who took office on June 13 under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, a nationalist, has accused Netanyahu of jeopardizing Israel’s once rock-solid support in the United States by openly rallying behind former president Donald Trump’s Republican Party.

The new coalition government still sees Iran as the major threat to Israel, and has launched its own strikes on the Gaza Strip but has pledged to put the alliance with Washington first and to try to keep differences private.

After one of Lapid’s telephone conversations with Blinken, the Israeli foreign ministry said that the two agreed on no surprises in the relationship.

In his three days in Italy, Blinken will see Pope Francis on Monday which will be the pontiff’s first meeting with a high-ranking Biden administration official.

Blinken will also take part in meetings hosted by Italy of the Group of 20 major economies and of the coalition to defeat the Islamic State extremist group.

Blinken kicked off his trip to Europe in Berlin, where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel.