Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Israel next week for the first time since he condemned the country’s West Bank settlement plan in 2010.
Biden, who will be joined by his wife Jill Biden, will first go to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, before heading to Jordan after Israel and the West Bank next Tuesday and Wednesday.
On the trip, Biden will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, his office announced Wednesday.
Biden was last in Israel in 2010 when he scolded Israel over a plan to erect 1,6000 settler homes in an area of the occupied West Bank. However, Biden and Netanyahu met at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, shortly after sanctions were lifted against Iran as part of the nuclear deal.
President Obama has only been to Israel once as commander-in-chief, in 2013.
