A PLUS FOR BIDEN

Blinken: US committed to replenishing Iron Dome interceptors

 

i24NEWS 

June 8, 2021

 

 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that the United States is committed to replenishing Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.

"We are working with the Israelis to fully understand their needs and working with Congress," the country's top diplomat told the House Foreign Affairs Committee during testimony on US President Joe Biden's 2022 budget request and the department's foreign policy priorities.

"This is under very active review and we look forward to working with you to make sure that happens," Blinken said, referring to Israel's request for $1 billion in emergency funding for Iron Dome following 11 days of fighting with Gaza-based terrorist groups who launched more than 4,000 rockets at Israeli territory.

Blinken reiterated the Biden administration's position that Israel has a right to defend itself against rockets fired indiscriminately at Israeli civilians.

"It would be unacceptable for any country to have rockets rain down on it indiscriminately targeting civilians and not do something about it," Blinken said, adding that as a democracy, Israel has an "extra burden to do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties."

With regard to Hamas, Blinken called it "hard to fathom" how anyone in the world could accept a terrorist organization that has "vowed in its own charter to destroy Israel."

In response to the rise in antisemitic attacks on Jewish communities across the US, Blinken stated that the administration is working "expeditiously" to nominate a State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism.