Biden okays $680m Israel arms sale

The administration of United States President Joe Biden is reported to have provisionally approved a $680m arms package to Israel, even as it asserts that it is pushing for peace in the Middle East, reports al Jazeera.

Reports of the arms deal on Wednesday come a day after Biden announced a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and promised to renew efforts to reach a similar agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza – one he has repeatedly promised but failed to deliver.

The arms package had been in the works for months and had been previewed by congressional committees in September and submitted for wider review in October, an unnamed US official told the Reuters news agency, which confirmed an earlier report by the Financial Times on Biden’s provisional approval.

The latest delivery will include hundreds of small-diameter bombs and thousands of joint direct attack munition kits (JDAMs), both news organisations reported. JDAMs convert “dumb” bombs into precision-guided weapons.

The Biden administration has not confirmed the reports, the timing of which highlights the juxtaposition of the US position on the Middle East conflict – on the one hand facilitating ceasefire negotiations while on the other hand selling billions of dollars of munitions to Israel as it kills tens of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese.

On Tuesday, Biden – who has consistently supported Israel and portrays US arms sales to Israel as essential support for an ally – held an address at the White House announcing that a US-brokered ceasefire that would see Israel withdraw from Lebanon within 60 days had been reached. That deal went into effect early on Wednesday._Agencies.