Netanyahu, Trump to talk about Iran, Hamas in White House meeting today

UPI

a day ago

1 of 5 | Caution tape and barricades block the road in front of the White House ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
July 7 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet President Donald Trump in the White House early Monday evening in an effort to broker a truce with Hamas in Gaza and nine days after the United States bombed nuclear sites in Iran.
It is Netanyahu's third visit to the White House since Trump became president again on Jan. 20.
The two leaders were to meet for dinner, which is closed to the media.
Trump has proposed a 60-day truce that involves the release of 10 live Israeli hostages and 18 deceased ones as a way to work toward a peace agreement.
Netanyahu has been unwilling to sign a deal to end the war, which began Oct. 7, 2023, when the militants invaded Israel from Gaza. Netanyahu has vowed to eliminate Hamas.
And Hamas won't release all of the remaining hostages unless Israel withdraws its forces and agrees to let Hamas control all of Gaza.
Netanyahu wants Arab countries to control Gaza and provide security with Palestinians unaffiliated with Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, Axios reported. Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia oppose this and want some role for the Palestinian Authority.
There are 2.2 million Palestinians on the Gaza Strip of 131 square miles.
Israel and Hamas previously had two cease-fires. The first one lasted four days in November 2023. The last one went from Jan. 19 to March 1, during which 25 Israeli living hostages and 1,737 Palestinian prisoners were released. Weeks later, Israel resumed airstrikes on Gaza and ended humanitarian aid, which later resumed in late May by U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
While Netanyahu headed to the United States on Sunday, Israeli negotiators went to Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas about a possible accord. Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has worked on agreements between Israel-Hamas and Israel-Iran.
The two leaders also plan to discuss the situation Iran. Trump wants a nuclear deal with the nation after the United States used B-2 jets to send bombs deep into the ground at the nuclear sites.
Trump said the bomb targets were "obliterated" but the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said the nation's uranium enrichment program has only been set back months.
Many leaders worldwide are fearful that Iran is developing a nuclear bomb.
"We're working on a lot of things with Israel, and one of the things is probably a permanent deal with Iran," Trump told reporters on Sunday. "They have to give up all of the things that you know so well."
Trump wants no uranium enrichment in Iran.
Netanyahu opposed the nuclear accord in 2015 that Trump withdrew from in 2018 during his first term in office.
"For the first time in history, the United States and Israel have gone to war together jointly in offensive operations against the military capabilities of a primary common adversary," John Hannah, senior Fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Fox News. "That's a very big deal."