Netanyahu at White House For First Trump Talks During Iran War

• Meeting is the eighth between the leaders since Trump’s return to office in early 2025 and comes ahead of key electoral tests later this year for both Netanyahu and US president
• Relations between Trump and Netanyahu reached a low point in April during negotiations on the ceasefire with Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived Tuesday at the White House for his first in-person talks with President Donald Trump since the Iran war began, as the leaders seek to patch over public disagreements on the conflict.

The meeting is expected to be dominated by the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February but has seen a recent pause in the fighting as Washington says it wants to give negotiations a chance.

Israel has not taken part in the latest round of hostilities between the United States and Iran, which flared earlier this month as an April ceasefire collapsed.

The meeting is the eighth between the leaders since Trump’s return to office in early 2025 and comes ahead of key electoral tests later this year for both Netanyahu and the US president: national elections in Israel and midterm polls in the United States.

“We will discuss all the issues on the agenda, first and foremost Iran. Naturally, our goal is to safeguard our security and also to expand the circle of peace around us,” Netanyahu said before departing from Israel.

Upon arriving in Washington, Netanyahu attended a private memorial dinner on Monday evening in honor of the late senator Lindsey Graham, his office said.

He was also scheduled to attend the memorial service for Graham later Tuesday.

Relations between Trump and Netanyahu reached a low point in April during negotiations on the ceasefire with Iran, with Trump unleashing profanity-laced tirades against his Israeli ally.

Trump later described Netanyahu in an interview as a “very difficult guy.”

Netanyahu downplayed the exchanges as “tactical disagreements,” saying they were aligned on the goals of the war.

On Tuesday, the leaders were expected to discuss the implementation of a US-sponsored framework deal signed by Israel and Lebanon last month, whose application on the ground has been challenging.

The talks were also expected to touch on Gaza, as diplomatic efforts to kickstart the devastated Palestinian territory’s reconstruction are at a standstill.

Nearly three years after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out, the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire, and Israel continues to regularly target people the military says are militants.

AFP