Following reports Wednesday morning of possible cuts in American military aid to Israel, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that the Obama administration was prepared to give the biggest military aid package in history, calling it “the largest single pledge of military assistance from the United States to any country in our history, cementing an unparalleled security relationship all the way to 2029".

Blinken’s comments came during his address at the Herzliya Conference Wednesday afternoon.

While the Deputy Secretary indicated the White House was likely to increase aid to Israel, he emphasized the Jewish state’s need to take concrete steps towards the formation of Palestinian state, including a total halt to “settlement activity”.

“This has been the position of every American administration,” Blinken said. “The future seems more distant than ever, but to deny its possibility” would be to surrender to cynicism, he said.

Pivoting to Iran, Blinken claimed that thanks to the Iranian nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration last year, “everyone one of Iran’s pathways to a bomb has been blocked far into the future.”