(AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met President Donald Trump at the White House to push for a harder line in Iran nuclear talks Wednesday, with the Middle East still on edge over the threat of US military action. The seventh meeting between the two men since Trump returned to power was being held behind closed doors, with Netanyahu slipping in via a side entrance without receiving the traditional honor guard. Trump and Netanyahu were seen shaking hands in a photograph released by the Israeli premier’s office, but neither side gave any immediate details about the talks and reporters were not allowed in.
Washington and Tehran resumed nuclear talks last week in Oman. They had been suspended after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last July.
– **What does Netanyahu want?**
Netanyahu is urging the US leader to take a harder line on arch-foe Iran’s ballistic missile program and rushed to Washington a week earlier than expected as the Iran talks proceeded. The Israeli prime minister said as he left for Washington his talks would “first and foremost” be about the Iran negotiations, while adding that they would also discuss Gaza and other regional issues. “I will present to the president our views regarding the principles for the negotiations,” he said in a video statement. Netanyahu’s office said he would highlight Iran’s missile arsenal. Israel’s concerns came to a head during their unprecedented war last year, during which Iran launched waves of ballistic missiles and other projectiles at Israeli territory, striking both military and civilian areas. Netanyahu also met Trump’s Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Tuesday night.
– **What does Trump think?**
While talking up hopes of a nuclear deal, Trump has also been dialing up the threat of possible US military action against Iran. He warned in an interview with the Axios news outlet earlier Tuesday that he was “thinking” of sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region. “Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time,” Trump said. “We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going.” Trump, who ordered US strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran last June, separately told Fox Business that any deal would have to involve “no nuclear weapons, no missiles.”
– **What does Iran say?**
So far, Iran has rejected expanding its talks with the United States beyond the issue of its nuclear program, though Washington also wants Tehran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional militant groups on the table. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, would “not yield to excessive demands” on its nuclear program. But he insisted his country was not “not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.”
– **’Board of Peace’ and West Bank**
Netanyahu’s visit will also include other issues, from Gaza to the West Bank. He officially signed on as a member of Trump’s “Board of Peace” during a meeting earlier Wednesday with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Israeli PM’s office said. The group was originally meant to oversee the Gaza ceasefire, but Trump is now positioning it as a possible rival to the United Nations. The “Board of Peace” is due to hold a meeting in Washington on February 19. Netanyahu had been due to attend but brought his trip forward to push his Iran demands. The meeting will also come amid growing international outrage over Israeli measures to tighten control of the occupied West Bank by allowing settlers to buy land directly from Palestinian owners.
– **How many meetings?**
Wednesday’s meeting is the sixth between the two leaders on US soil since Trump returned to office in January 2025 — five times at the White House and once at the Republican’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. A seventh meeting took place in Jerusalem in October when Trump announced a ceasefire in Gaza.
burs-dk/des – Danny KEMP
© 2024 AFP
