Washington: Donald Trump publicly rebuked Benjamin Netanyahu over plans for escalating the war in Iran as the two men met at the White House for the first time since the conflict commenced five months ago.
The Israeli leader made an understated arrival through the West Wing’s side entrance, and the meeting with the US president and several senior administration figures was closed to the media.
But only a few hours earlier, Trump expressed frustration about reports that Netanyahu intended to present Israeli intelligence that Iran was fortifying Pickaxe Mountain – an underground nuclear site near its Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
“I don’t need Bibi to tell me that,” Trump told Fox News, using an affectionate term for the Israeli PM. “Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved … We have the greatest cameras in the world focused on [Pickaxe Mountain], we know exactly what’s going on.”
The New York Post reported on Tuesday (US time) that Netanyahu would use the visit to present evidence of ongoing Iranian nuclear activity and demonstrate that Tehran was not negotiating in good faith, citing a source in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu did not publicly declare what he intended to tell Trump, but the US president appeared to interpret the reporting as a statement from Netanyahu.
“I heard Bibi announce that,” Trump told Fox News. “I said, ‘Why don’t you just tell it to me, why do you have to announce it to the world?’ I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe, it’s not a big problem.”
Trump repeated his threat to destroy the facility if a deal with the Iranians was not forthcoming. He also spoke about “competing factions” within the Republican Party, some of whom wanted him to escalate strikes and others who preferred a diplomatic solution.
It was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu actually presented Trump with intelligence about Pickaxe Mountain or any other Iranian nuclear site. The meeting lasted just over an hour.
Photographs from the meeting by the Israeli government showed Trump beaming, and there is no suggestion of a blow-up between the two leaders. But the president’s willingness to publicly push back on Netanyahu is indicative of a relationship that is more strained than before the war.
Trump’s observation that Netanyahu “wants me to stay involved” – or seeks to prolong the war – is also a candid admission of the prevailing dynamic between the two leaders.
The Israeli prime minister is primarily in Washington for the funeral of Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly earlier this month from what preliminary medical reports said was an aortic tear. The long-serving senator was a close friend of Israel and a cheerleader for US military intervention in Iran and elsewhere.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also travelled to Washington for the funeral, and held a similarly private White House meeting with Trump just an hour before Netanyahu.
Zelenksy said it was a good meeting that included discussion about US plans to allow Ukraine to licence production of Patriot missile interceptors, “and several other ideas that could help” in the war against Russia.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said both meetings were “positive and productive”.
On Monday night, after arriving from Israel, Netanyahu and his wife Sara attended a private memorial dinner with Graham’s family, friends and several Trump administration officials at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington.
“America has lost a great patriot. Israel has lost one of its greatest friends and supporters. And I have lost a dear friend,” Netanyahu told the gathering, according to his office.
US news site Axios reported the dinner was hosted by Lebanese banker and film producer Antoun Sehnaoui and Trump’s former deputy Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus.
Other attendees included Meta president Dina Powell McCormick, Trump aide Stephen Miller and his wife Katie, and a slew of Republican and Democratic senators – among them Darline Graham, who has taken her late brother’s Senate seat.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
