US President Donald Trump voiced irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting yesterday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister’s planned talking points on Iran had surfaced publicly, in a fresh sign of strain between the two leaders.Asked about reports that Netanyahu wanted to talk to him about Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Iran’s main nuclear sites, Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname, “I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.” “Why don’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?” Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.”
The New York Post reported on Monday, citing a source in Jerusalem, that Netanyahu was expected to provide intelligence to Trump that Iran is building up its nuclear facilities at Pickaxe Mountain and is lying about wanting a peace deal.But photos posted by Netanyahu’s office on X showed the two leaders sitting beside each other in the Oval Office with wide smiles.
They were joined by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.Trump met Netanyahu after first having brief closed-door talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt described both meetings as “positive and productive.” Relations with Zelensky have warmed as Ukraine has blunted Russian advances in their more than four-year-old war, while Netanyahu faces growing White House frustration over the lack of progress toward a broader settlement in the Iran conflict and criticism from some of Trump’s supporters who oppose deeper US involvement in the Middle East.
The Israeli and Ukrainian leaders were in Washington to attend a memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican who was an influential advocate for both Israel and Ukraine in Washington.Both the Ukraine war and the widening Middle East conflict are at critical junctures. After the collapse of a ceasefire in the Iran war, Trump says he has paused US airstrikes to give diplomacy another chance.
Netanyahu has run hot and cold with Trump, who at times has had to rein in the Israeli leader from attacking targets in Lebanon to try to weaken Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.An acrimonious phone call in June in which the president called the prime minister “crazy”, first leaked to the media and later publicly confirmed by Trump himself, laid bare the strains between the two leaders.Sources familiar with the matter said Netanyahu aims to get Trump’s support for his reelection campaign ahead of an October 27 vote.
A meeting with Trump that showcases what has traditionally been a close relationship between the two leaders could help Netanyahu at home where he is struggling in the opinion polls.They are also expected to discuss the Abraham Accords, the series of agreements Trump brokered to normalise diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.Trump wants to add Saudi Arabia to the accords and conditioned a civilian nuclear co-operation deal with the kingdom last week on Riyadh signing up. Riyadh has so far rejected joining the accords without a path toward Palestinian statehood.