US officials went line-by-line through arms shipments to Israel with defense minister to rebut Netanyahu’s delay claim

Washington CNN —

American officials went through a line-by-line explanation of hundreds of US weapons shipments to Israel in meetings this week with the country’s defense minister in a bid to rebut claims from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that President Joe Biden was delaying military assistance.

The meetings with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant came amid a growing spat between the Biden administration and Netanyahu, who has claimed that armaments are being delayed to the intense frustration of Washington. It was the latest spat between the two allies, which have diverged over Israel’s war tactics in Gaza.

US officials meeting Gallant this week brought in experts from across the government to engage in “professional to professional” discussions that ticked through in exacting detail the current state of munitions shipments.

“We had a very good opportunity to sit down with experts from across our system and go through every single case,” a senior US administration official said. “This is one of the most complex security partnerships we have, one of the most multifaceted.”

The official attributed Netanyahu’s claims – made multiple times over the course of the last week, including in a video in English released on social media – to “misunderstandings” on the Israelis’ part.

“There’s stuff happening literally every day across the US government and across the Israeli system, and we were able to go through everything,” the official said, adding the US was able to clarify the status of certain shipments as they make their way through a complex delivery process.

There was “real progress” in developing an understanding of that process and of prioritizing certain cases, the official said, adding there was an