Trump, Netanyahu discuss Iran, Gaza

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump began a closed-door meeting with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday, which is expected to center on the US-Iran talks and the second phase of the Gaza peace deal, local media reported.

Netanyahu arrived at the White House in a vehicle via the South Lawn, a video captured by CNN shows.

Before the meeting, Netanyahu met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and formally signed up as a member of the Board of Peace. The initiative is controversial in Israel's parliament, Fox News reported.

"Prior to his meeting with President Trump at the White House, Prime Minister Netanyahu signed up, in the presence of Secretary of State Rubio, as a member of the Board of Peace," the Israeli prime minister's office said on X.

Visuals released earlier on Wednesday after the Netanyahu-Rubio meeting showed them holding a document with Netanyahu's signature showing Israel joined the board. Netanyahu said on X that he "signed Israel's accession as a member of the Board of Peace".

A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a US plan on which Israel and Hamas signed off.

Under the Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.

The board will hold its first meeting on Feb 19 in Washington to discuss Gaza's reconstruction.

Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies, advised caution over the board's meeting, noting that the body is not a multilateral UN mechanism, but rather a political initiative heavily influenced by US interests.

"If the format from the outset places Hamas as the sole party that must fulfill the requirements, while Israel … is left untouched, then the Board of Peace is not a just peace scheme, but rather Trump's version of conflict management," said Sulaeman.

The ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly violated, with at least 580 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers reported killed since it began in October, according to Palestinian and Israeli tallies, respectively.

It is Netanyahu's seventh meeting with Trump since the US president took office in January last year. He later discussed Iran with Trump.

On Tuesday, Trump said in an interview with Axios that Iran "wants to make a deal very badly", and warned "either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time".

Fresh negotiations

Netanyahu was reportedly looking to influence the agenda of the next round of US talks with Iran following Friday's US-Iran indirect negotiations held in Oman.

Ahead of his trip to Washington, Netanyahu told reporters, "I will present to the president our concept regarding the principles of the negotiations (on Iran) — the essential principles that are important not only to Israel but to anyone who wants peace and security in the Middle East."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said at celebrations in Tehran for the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution on Wednesday that a "wall of distrust" created by the West is hindering nuclear talks with the United States, vowing that Iran will never surrender to excessive demands.

"The Netanyahu-Trump meeting on Iran and Gaza demonstrates that the Gaza issue is constantly drawn into larger geopolitical calculations," said Sulaeman.

"As long as Gaza is positioned as part of a regional bargaining chip — rather than an issue of Palestinian rights — any solution will be biased toward the major powers," she told China Daily.

Jan Yumul in Hong Kong contributed to this story.

Agencies - Xinhua