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 Islamic republic.
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.
– ‘Phase two has to begin’ –
Netanyahu’s visit caps a frantic few days of international diplomacy in Palm Beach, where Trump hosted Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday for talks on ending Russia’s invasion.
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.
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.
The timing of the Netanyahu meeting is “very significant,” said Gershon Baskin, the co-head of peacebuilding commission the Alliance for Two States, who has taken part in back-channel negotiations with Hamas.
“Phase two has to begin,” he told AFP, adding that “I think the Americans realize that it’s late because Hamas has had too much time to re-establish its presence.”
The first phase of the truce deal stipulated that Hamas release the remaining hostages, both dead and alive, taken during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. The group has so far returned all the living captives and the remains of all but one.
Under the second stage, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, while Hamas is supposed to lay down its weapons — a major sticking point for the Islamist movement.
An interim authority is meanwhile meant to govern the Palestinian territory, and the international stabilization force (ISF) is to be deployed.
Both sides, however, have alleged frequent ceasefire violations.
– ‘Frustrated with Netanyahu’ –
The Axios news outlet reported on Friday that Trump wanted to convene the first meeting of a new Gaza “Board of Peace” that he will chair at the Davos forum in Switzerland in January.
But it said that senior White House officials were growing exasperated with what they viewed as efforts by Netanyahu to stall the peace process.
“There are more and more signs that the American administration is getting frustrated with Netanyahu,” said Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East expert at London-based think-tank Chatham House.
“The question is what it’s going to do about it,” he added, “because phase two is right now going nowhere.”
Israel is continuing to strike Hamas targets in Gaza, as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon despite another ceasefire there. Syria will also be on the agenda.
Mekelberg said Netanyahu could be attempting to shift attention from Gaza onto Iran as Israel enters an election year.
“Everything is connected to staying in power,” he said of the long-time Israeli premier.
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© Agence France-Presse
