Donald Trump to meet Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago
Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog where the focus is squarely on international conflicts today.
Just a day after hosting Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump will host Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.
It is the fifth meeting between the two leaders in the US this year and comes amid concerns over progress on Trump’s fragile Gaza truce plan.
Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet Donald Trump at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday evening amid growing fears Israel could launch new offensives against regional enemies, potentially plunging the Middle East further into instability.
The Israeli prime minister left Israel on Sunday on his fifth visit to see Trump in the US this year.
High on the agenda will be the ceasefire in Gaza, which in October halted the devastating two-year-long war. Though the terms agreed for an initial phase have been largely completed, with Israel’s forces pulling back to new positions and Hamas releasing all living and all but one of the dead hostages, immense challenges face the implementation of the second phase of the president’s 20-point plan.
There are also fears Israel will launch new offensives against Hezbollah in Lebanon, breaking a ceasefire established more than a year ago, or against Iran, which it accuses of accelerating the manufacture of ballistic missiles in recent months.
There are fears in the White House that both Israel and Hamas are dragging their feet on the second phase of the ceasefire. But Trump says Netanyahu has asked for these talks, perhaps to put pressure on shifting focus to Iran. He may call for more US strikes on the Islamic republic.
I’ll have more over the coming hours.
Key events
The Gaza ceasefire in October is one of the major achievements of Trump’s first year back in power, but his administration and regional mediators want to keep up the momentum.
There are reports that Trump would be keen to announce – even as early as January – a Palestinian technocratic government for Gaza, and the deployment of an international stabilisation force.
Axios reported on Friday that Trump wanted to convene the first meeting of a new Gaza “Board of Peace” that he would chair, at the Davos forum in Switzerland in January.
Trump’s global envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner hosted senior officials from mediators Qatar, Egypt and Turkey in Miami earlier this month.
Donald Trump to meet Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago
Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog where the focus is squarely on international conflicts today.
Just a day after hosting Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump will host Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago.
It is the fifth meeting between the two leaders in the US this year and comes amid concerns over progress on Trump’s fragile Gaza truce plan.
Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet Donald Trump at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday evening amid growing fears Israel could launch new offensives against regional enemies, potentially plunging the Middle East further into instability.
The Israeli prime minister left Israel on Sunday on his fifth visit to see Trump in the US this year.
High on the agenda will be the ceasefire in Gaza, which in October halted the devastating two-year-long war. Though the terms agreed for an initial phase have been largely completed, with Israel’s forces pulling back to new positions and Hamas releasing all living and all but one of the dead hostages, immense challenges face the implementation of the second phase of the president’s 20-point plan.
There are also fears Israel will launch new offensives against Hezbollah in Lebanon, breaking a ceasefire established more than a year ago, or against Iran, which it accuses of accelerating the manufacture of ballistic missiles in recent months.
There are fears in the White House that both Israel and Hamas are dragging their feet on the second phase of the ceasefire. But Trump says Netanyahu has asked for these talks, perhaps to put pressure on shifting focus to Iran. He may call for more US strikes on the Islamic republic.
I’ll have more over the coming hours.
