Carl Osgood February 3, 2025 EST EIRNS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed in Washington Feb. 2 to, among other things, meet with President Donald Trump. “The discussions on the Middle East with Israel and various and sundry other countries are progressing,” Trump told reporters yesterday, reported the Times of Israel. He did not offer details, but the comment came as indirect talks are slated to resume between Israel and Hamas on a second stage of the three-phase Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. “Bibi Netanyahu’s coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled,” Trump added.
Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump on Tuesday evening, Feb 4, at 6 p.m. local time, according to the Times of Israel report. The meeting will include dinner, likely at 9 p.m. The two might also host a press conference and meet with hostage families on Tuesday, officials said. The ceasefire discussions in Washington are expected to also cover concessions that Netanyahu must accept to revive normalization efforts with Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu is meeting with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Feb. 5 and is slated to meet Congressional leaders, including the Senate Majority Leader and House of Representatives Speaker, on Feb. 6.
Netanyahu’s first high-level meeting will be on Feb. 3 with U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. According to a report in Haaretz, those talks would commence the negotiations on the second stage of the Gaza ceasefire. Witkoff and his staff are expected to focus on advancing the talks between Israel and Hamas. A source familiar with the discussions told Haaretz the Trump administration would act to ensure that Netanyahu advances the negotiations, despite his earlier remarks about returning to fighting at the end of the first stage of the deal and his opposition to moving to its second stage.
In Amman,
the Jordanian royal palace announced yesterday that “His Majesty King
Abdullah II is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the
White House on Tuesday, 11 February 2025, after receiving an invitation
letter from the president last week.” the royal palace said.
The invitation comes after Trump proposed to “clean out” Gaza by
sending Palestinians to Jordan and Egypt. Both Amman and Cairo—key U.S.
allies in the region—have repeatedly rejected the proposal, alongside
other countries in the region.
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