Netanyahu to Meet Trump in Florida for Talks on Gaza, Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Donald Trump in Florida on Monday, with the US president pushing to move to the next stage of his fragile Gaza truce plan.
Netanyahu is also expected to try to shift some focus onto Iran, amid reports he will call for more US strikes on the country.
The meeting at Trump’s lavish Mar-a-Lago resort — the fifth between the two leaders to be held in the United States this year — comes as some White House officials fear both Israel and Hamas are slow-walking the second phase of their ceasefire.
Trump, who said Netanyahu had asked for the talks, is reportedly keen to announce — as soon as January — a Palestinian technocratic government for Gaza and the deployment of an international stabilization force.
The two leaders are to meet at 1 pm (1800 GMT), the White House said.
Israeli government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian said Netanyahu would discuss the second phase of the agreement, which involves making sure that “Hamas is disarmed, Gaza is demilitarized.”
He will also bring up the “danger Iran poses not only to the region of the Middle East, but the United States as well,” Bedrosian said before flying out with the Israeli premier.
In recent months, Israeli officials and media have expressed concern that Iran is rebuilding its ballistic missile arsenal after it came under attack during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
But Sina Toossi, a researcher at the Center for International Policy (CIP) in Washington, said Trump’s insistence that US strikes in June destroyed Tehran’s nuclear program had “removed Israel’s most powerful historical justification for US support for war with Iran”.
Netanyahu’s new focus on Iran’s missiles is “an effort to manufacture a replacement casus belli,” Toossi told AFP.
Iran on Monday denounced the reports as a “psychological operation” against Tehran, emphasizing it was fully prepared to defend itself, and warning renewed aggression would “result in harsher consequences” for Israel.
