{"id":230208,"date":"2025-02-02T10:33:06","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T10:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/02\/netanyahu-heads-to-washington-at-a-critical-juncture-for-mideast\/"},"modified":"2025-02-02T10:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T10:33:07","slug":"netanyahu-heads-to-washington-at-a-critical-juncture-for-mideast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/02\/netanyahu-heads-to-washington-at-a-critical-juncture-for-mideast\/","title":{"rendered":"Netanyahu Heads to Washington at a Critical Juncture for Mideast"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02israel-us-kbqm\/02israel-us-kbqm-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Netanyahu Heads to Washington at a Critical Juncture for Mideast\" title=\"Netanyahu Heads to Washington at a Critical Juncture for Mideast\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was traveling to Washington on Sunday for meetings this week with President Donald J. Trump and senior administration officials at a pivotal moment for the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump has made it clear that he wants the wars in the Middle East to end after the October 2023 Hamas-led assault on Israel set off 15 months of devastating conflict in Gaza that also spread to Lebanon. Before boarding his plane on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu spoke of broadening peace in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe decisions we made in the war have already changed the face of the Middle East,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said. \u201cI believe that we can strengthen security, broaden the circle of peace and achieve a remarkable era of peace through strength,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu is expected to be the first foreign leader to meet with Mr. Trump since his inauguration last month. The Israeli leader is expected to hold formative discussions with the Trump administration about several crucial regional issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Negotiations are supposed to start on Monday for the second phase of the cease-fire deal for Gaza that would turn a temporary truce into a permanent cessation of hostilities and see the release of hostages still being held there. In addition, the trial stage of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire for Lebanon is set to expire on Feb. 18, by which time both the Israeli military and Hezbollah are meant to have vacated the southern part of that country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Overarching issues for the future of the Middle East also remain on the agenda. Those include curbing Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions and support for armed proxies on Israel\u2019s borders, as well as the possibility of a grand bargain involving formal ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a major regional player.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu said from the tarmac on Sunday that the issues to be discussed with Mr. Trump include \u201cvictory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terror axis in all its components.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His office said that Mr. Netanyahu is expected to meet with Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy, on Monday and with Mr. Trump on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Netanyahu spoke by phone with Mr. Witkoff on Saturday and the two men agreed to start the negotiations for the second phase of the Gaza deal in their meeting on Monday, Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s office said in a statement, suggesting that Mr. Witkoff will play a major role in shuttle diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There was no immediate comment from the White House or Mr. Witkoff.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/02\/world\/europe\/netanyahu-trump-israel-washington.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was traveling to Washington on Sunday for meetings this week with President Donald J. Trump and senior administration officials at a pivotal moment for the Middle East. Mr. Trump has made it clear that he wants the wars in the Middle East to end after the October 2023 Hamas-led [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/02\/multimedia\/02israel-us-kbqm\/02israel-us-kbqm-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4757,18120,163575,3747,32652,5552,14190,16220,3096,19606,38,18537,16221,1209,7274,4758,137131,52,5179],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230208"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230210,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230208\/revisions\/230210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}