Washington, July 28 (dpa/GNA) – US President Donald Trump’s back-to-back meetings in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday were “positive and productive,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.
Trump received Zelensky and then Netanyahu in the Oval Office for bilateral talks on Tuesday, before the three leaders attend a memorial service for the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who was an important advocate for both Israel and Ukraine in Washington.
Photos of the meetings showed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were also present.
Observers were eagerly awaiting the meeting between Trump and Netanyahu, with the Israeli prime minister last visiting the White House in February, just two and a half weeks before the United States and Israel launched their joint strikes against Iran.
Five months have since passed, and the diverging interests of the US and Israel in the war have become increasingly visible. Ahead of the talks, which the White House said lasted just under an hour and a half, Netanyahu made clear that Iran would once again be the main topic. Israeli TV channel N12 reported that Netanyahu intended to present Trump with intelligence information about alleged Iranian efforts to rebuild its military capabilities. This was said to include alleged efforts by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran has denied such reports for years.
“But convincing Trump to abandon a stalled diplomatic process in favour of a new large-scale military operation would be a major challenge,” the Times of Israel wrote, against the backdrop of media reports that Netanyahu might also ask Trump for a “green light” for new Israeli strikes in Iran.
Trump told Fox News ahead of the meeting that the Israeli prime minister, was trying to persuade the US not to turn its back on the war.
Israeli media have suggested that Netanyahu remains committed to overthrowing Iran’s leadership. In a video message after the meeting, Netanyahu said it was one of the best conversations he had ever had with Trump, describing the US president as “our friend Donald Trump.” He said both leaders shared the common goal of ensuring that Iran does not build nuclear weapons.
In recent months, the once-close relationship between the two leaders had been seen as strained due to their differences over the Iran war. While Israel was said to want to continue the war, Trump appeared to seek a diplomatic solution for several months.
However, following the latest escalation in the conflict, both the ceasefire and Washington’s framework agreement with Tehran are now history. For Trump, this poses a serious problem: The important US congressional midterm elections are less than 100 days away.
The war is unpopular at home, and some in the US hold Netanyahu responsible for having persuaded Trump to join it. Elections are also looming for Netanyahu, with Israelis set to head to the polls in October. It is therefore crucial for the Israeli prime minister to present a united front with Trump.
Before the meeting, Netanyahu stressed that this was already his eighth meeting with Trump during his second term, “more than with any other international leader.” He called this “a great privilege, but also a great responsibility.”
Trump, for his part, said on Monday that he and Netanyahu had “a little bit of a disagreement” on Iran, but were “pretty close” on the issue.
At Trump’s closed-door meeting with Zelensky earlier in the day, Ukrainian air defences were top of the agenda. “The President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,” Zelensky wrote on X following the meeting, which US media said lasted just over an hour.
The Ukrainian president was referring to a promised licence to produce the Patriot air-defence missiles, which are critical for its defence against Russian strikes, in Ukraine. He said the talks had also centred on reviving diplomatic efforts to bring the war to an end.
The US has been acting as a mediator in the war, which was launched by Russia in February 2022. However, its efforts to bring the fighting to an end have recently taken a back seat, partly as a result of the war with Iran. Zelensky thanked the US in his social media post, writing: “I am grateful to the United States for its firm support.” The talks were the latest in a string of recent meetings between Trump and Zelensky. The two met at the NATO summit in Ankara at the start of the month, and at the G7 summit in the French town of Évian in mid-June. At both summits, the US endorsed joint positions on the war in Ukraine.
Following the memorial service for the late senator Graham on Tuesday evening, Zelensky is expected to meet senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties. The senators announced on Tuesday that they had agreed on legislation designed to put greater pressure on Russia through new sanctions, a bill which was championed by Graham before his death.
According to newly published amendments, the bill is set to be named after the Republican. The legislation primarily targets Russian natural gas and oil exports, a key source of revenue for Moscow. It would authorize the US president to impose sanctions on the five largest buyers of Russian energy, as well as the five countries doing the most to help Russia circumvent energy sanctions.
This could further strain US trade relations with China and India, both of which are major buyers of Russian oil. Following the bipartisan agreement, the bill could be passed by the Senate as early as this week, according to media reports. However, as the House of Representatives is already in recess, it is unlikely to come into force before September.
GNA