Lapid to ToI’s Schneider on problems with Israel-Saudi defense ties: ‘Can’t go into details, working on regional security architecture’

Times of Israel’s Tal Schneider asks the leaders about stalled progress toward Israel’s inclusion in the US Visa Waiver program, and whether Israel’s opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu will be asked to help on this (since the opposition has blocked some legislation on the issue).

She also asks about reported Saudi reservations regarding regional defense cooperation — leaving a situation in which Israel is mainly sharing its intel.

Biden: “We are working very, very, very hard to eliminate the lack of precision in the applications, many times, for the visa program. It is my hope and expectation that in the next several months we’ll have it worked out.”

Lapid: “We urge the Israeli opposition to be more responsible and help with the legislation needed to finalize this.”

As regards regional defense cooperation, Lapid says: “It is no secret that we are doing our best with our American friends to work on the regional security architecture. So this was not secret. The details of this apparently are. So I’m not going to go into details on this. But we are working with everybody we can in order to promote regional security, especially facing Iran’s regime and its terror policy.”