and partners today to continue to highlight the urgent humanitarian needs in afghanistan and elsewhere and in particular for women, girls and other vulnerable populations.

the oval. this is about 15 minutes. >> is a delight to have the prime minister here. i know you'll want to know what has happened this morning. let me begin by acknowledging the bravery and sacrifice that our military makes every single day. the loss of americans and marines, sailors and army personnel, it was tragic as i said yesterday. the prime minister and i have talked about it as he is a

military man, gone to war, lost a friend. losing a son, a daughter, husband, wife is like being sucked into a big black hole in the middle of your chest and i don't think there is any way out. my heart goes out to all of those who we have lost. the mission they perform is dangerous. now, it comes with a significant loss of american personnel. they continue to evacuate folks out of that region out of the airport. they evacuated more than 12,000 additional people out of the airport in the last 24 hours. i met with my commanders this morning. i got a detailed briefing about

yesterday's attacks and the measures they are taking to protect our forces and we will complete the mission. i'm not going to take any questions, because of the prime minister being here, on afghanistan now but it will be available at another time. it is great to have the prime minister here. we have become close friends. he has written the amtrak train a lot from new york down to wilmington, delaware. he heads into leads the most diverse government in israeli history. we have a big agenda today starting with covid which we have been talking about. both of our successful vaccination programs. we will continue to talk about the issue of booster shots.

their program has great results and we will start in september. we are considering the advice that you have given that we should start earlier. it's promising, this booster program that's going to start here september the 20th pending approval of the fda and cdc committee outside experts. the question raised should it be shorter than eight months? should it be as little as five months? that is being discussed. i spoke with dr. fauci this morning about that. we are also going to discuss israel's unwavering commitment that we have in the united states to israel security. i fully support replenishing israel's iron dome system and we are also going to discuss the threat from iran and making sure

they never develop a nuclear weapon. we are putting diplomacy first. to see where that takes us. we will support israel having deeper ties with the arab muslim neighbors and globally. that is a trend that i think should be encouraged not discouraged and we will do all we can to make a value added. we will also try to -- israelis and palestinians. we will work toward filling the requirements of the visa waiver program. mr. prime minister, i want to thank you again for coming. the u.s. will always be there for israel. it is an unshakable partnership between our two nations. i have known every israeli prime

minister since golda meyer. i have gotten to know them personally. welcome. >> thank you, mr. president. first of all, on behalf of the israeli people, i want to extend our condolences and deep sadness for the loss of american lives in kabul. the american service members lost their lives while on a mission to save other people's lives. that is the very definition of courage and sacrifice. may they rest in peace. especially on this day, i want to be crystal clear, israel always stands together with united states of america unequivocally. i also want to thank you for

your warm words in our private meeting which is of your support of israel. you have always stood up for us, especially during tough times like a few months ago when thousands of rockets were being shot on israeli towns and cities. that is one fridship is really tested. we trust in your support, mr. president. israel knows that we have no better or more reliable ally in the world than the united states of america. i come here from jerusalem, our eternal capital, and i bring with me a new spirit. a spirit of goodwill. a spirit of hope. a spirit of decency and honesty.

a spirit of unity and bipartisanship. folks have suggested we harbor differing political opinions, yet we all share the deep passion to work together to build a better future for israel. that is what israel is about. we are out to be good and do good. in our region, doing good is not enough. israel has to be strong in order to do good. be strong so we can do good. we cannot lose sight for even one moment that we are in the toughest neighborhood in the world. we have

>> after the overwhelming stronger than any of our enemies and all of our enemies combined think mr. president for helping to yet again fortify israel's strategic advantage. the main issue we will talk about today is ryan's weapons race, we talked about inside the room i was happy to hear your clear words that iran will never be able to fire nuclear weapons and that you emphasize the diplomatic group, there is options if that doesn't work out. these illustrate what the world would look like if a radical

islamic regime acquired weapons. that would be a nuclear nightmare for the entire world. iran is the world's number one importer of terror, incivility, and human rights violations. as we sit here right now, the iranians are spinning their centrifuge. we have to stop them. we both agree. we have developed a comprehensive strategy will be talking about with two goals. the first goal is to stop iran's regional aggression. the second is to permanently get a ran away from ever being able to break out nuclear weapons. as i told you, this will never

have and never will -- that is our job. we will never outsource our security. it is our response ability to take care of our fate. we do thank you for the tools you have been giving us. we will be talking about covid and the delta variant, which is wreaking havoc across the world. you were the first to call the pandemic a pandemic. a van vaccinated, that -- there is more true. about a month ago, i took a tough decision, policy decision that israel would -- the booster shots, i can report to you mr. president and everyone that we have reached almost 3 million

israelis that have received this shots. the bottom line, they are safe and it works. the good news, finally is that the tide is turning in israel. but alas for mr. president we read a big proportion beyond the terror. tomorrow, will be reading work from the prophet isaiah in hebrew, the words are [speaking foreign language] what this means, i can say no. what this means is sons and

daughters of the jewish people will come back to our land, nurse our ancient land the ancient jewish prophecy, today's israel's reality, it's a miracle that you have been so central, for seven years. today, you have been so generous with your time. there's been yet another chapter in the beautiful story of the friendship between our two nations. united states of america, in the jewish democrat state of israel. both of us need to be strong, both of us who are a lighthouse in a stormy world.

thank you mr. president, i look forward to working with you now and many years forward. thank you. >> thank you, you have given me credit, much of which goes to barack obama for making sure we committed. he is the one that deserves the credit. >> thank you very much folks. [reporters talking over each other]