Netanyahu to meet Trump at White House next week amid Iran war escalation
Visit will be Netanyahu’s seventh to White House, underscoring US commitment amid war with Iran, genocide in Gaza. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due
Visit will be Netanyahu’s seventh to White House, underscoring US commitment amid war with Iran, genocide in Gaza. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House next Tuesday, the PM’s office said. It added that the meeting coincides with Netanyahu’s visit for the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham. The Republican, who was one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in Washington, died suddenly last week. “At President Trump’s invitation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart for Washington on Monday for an official visit,” the statement said. “As part of the visit, the prime minister will meet with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday and will attend the funeral service for Senator Lindsey Graham.” The visit will be Netanyahu’s seventh at the White House in Trump’s second term, far outpacing any other world leader and underscoring the administration’s continued commitment to Israel. It comes as the US-Israeli war with Iran has again escalated following a breakdown earlier this month of a ceasefire reached as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran. Israel had opposed the MoU, with its ongoing military operations in Lebanon repeatedly threatening to derail diplomatic overtures.
The Trump administration has been overseeing talks between Lebanon and Israel aimed at ending the war that do not include Hezbollah. Both Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a plan meant to turn over Israeli-occupied areas to the Lebanese military, although the facts on the ground have remained largely unchanged since March. In a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun earlier this week, Trump did not offer a timeline for Israel’s withdrawal. Also on Friday, US Central Command said its forces completed their 13th consecutive night of strikes on Iran. Iran has retaliated daily against US assets in the region, killing three US soldiers in a strike on a base in Jordan last week. Washington has also increasingly shifted military assets to Israel, in what some analysts see as a sign of a larger escalation on the horizon. The visit also comes as Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza goes on, with the Israeli military continuing to issue displacement orders and launching near daily attacks, despite the US-backed “ceasefire” that began last October. An analysis from UN agencies has found that an estimated 1.4 million people, representing 67 percent of Gaza’s population, are still suffering “crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity”.
The BriefWire