Washington [US], July 29: US President Donald Trump's back-to-back meetings in Washington with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday were "positive and productive," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.
Trump received Zelensky and then Netanyahu in the Oval Office for bilateral talks on Tuesday, before the three leaders attend a memorial service for the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who was an important advocate for both Israel and Ukraine in Washington. Photos of the meetings showed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were also present.
Observers were eagerly awaiting the meeting between Trump and Netanyahu, with the Israeli prime minister last visiting the White House in February, just two and a half weeks before the United States and Israel launched their joint strikes against Iran. Five months have since passed, and the diverging interests of the US and Israel in the war have become increasingly visible.
Ahead of the talks, which the White House said lasted just under an hour and a half, Netanyahu made clear that Iran would once again be the main topic.
Israeli TV channel N12 reported that Netanyahu intended to present Trump with intelligence information about alleged Iranian efforts to rebuild its military capabilities. This was said to include alleged efforts by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran has denied such reports for years.
Trump told Fox News ahead of the meeting that the Israeli prime minister was trying to persuade the US not to turn its back on the war. Israeli media have suggested that Netanyahu remains committed to overthrowing Iran's leadership.
In recent months, the once-close relationship between the two leaders had been seen as strained due to their differences over the Iran war.
While Israel was said to want to continue the war, Trump appeared to seek a diplomatic solution for several months. At Trump's closed-door meeting with Zelensky earlier in the day, Ukrainian air defences were top of the agenda.
"The President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help," Zelensky wrote on X following the meeting, which US media said lasted just over an hour.
The Ukrainian president was referring to a promised licence to produce the Patriot air-defence missiles, which are critical for its defence against Russian strikes, in Ukraine. He said the talks had also centred on reviving diplomatic efforts to bring the war to an end.
The US has been acting as a mediator in the war, which was launched by Russia in February 2022. However, its efforts to bring the fighting to an end have recently taken a back seat, partly as a result of the war with Iran.
Zelensky thanked the US in his social media post, writing: "I am grateful to the United States for its firm support."
The talks were the latest in a string of recent meetings between Trump and Zelensky.
The two met at the NATO summit in Ankara at the start of the month, and at the G7 summit in the French town of Évian in mid-June. At both summits, the US endorsed joint positions on the war in Ukraine.
Source: Qatar Tribune
