White House perplexed by Netanyahu claims that U.S. is withholding weapons
CBSN
The White House, State Department, and Pentagon say they do not know what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talking about when he said this week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken was working to remove "bottlenecks" holding up weapons shipments to Israel. But one U.S. official offered an explanation for the Israeli leader's accusation.
Netanyahu, in a video released Tuesday, said he told Blinken it's inconceivable that in the past few months, the administration has been withholding weapons and ammunition from Israel.
The U.S. has been reviewing one shipment of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs since May. As Israel was preparing for a major offensive in Rafah, the Biden administration paused the shipment because, as President Biden put it in an interview last month, "Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs.

As the Trump administration continues to prepare military options for strikes in Iran, U.S. allies in the Mideast, including Turkey, Oman and Qatar, are attempting to head off that possibility by brokering diplomatic talks, multiple regional officials told CBS News. Camilla Schick and Eleanor Watson contributed to this report.

Another winter storm may be headed toward the East Coast of the United States this weekend, on the heels of a powerful and deadly system that blanketed huge swaths of the country in snow and ice. The effects of that original storm have lingered for many areas in its path, and will likely remain as repeated bouts of Arctic air plunge downward from Canada and drive temperatures below freezing. Nikki Nolan contributed to this report. In:











