Netanyahu & Trump Talk Jerusalem, Palestinians, Iran During White House Meet

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, their discussions focusing primarily on the peace process with the Palestinians, the Iran nuclear deal and the upcoming relocation of the American Embassy to Jerusalem in May. “I am looking at coming and if I can I will,” Trump said in reference to Netanyahu’s invitation to attend planned festivities in Israel’s capital to mark the mission’s move. As regards his much-anticipated peace plan, the U.S. leader stressed that the administration is “working very hard” on the proposal but offered no timeline for its introduction. “The Palestinians, I think, are wanting to come back to the [negotiating] table,” President Trump asserted, before qualifying that “if they don’t, you won’t have peace. [It’s] a possibility also, though I’m not saying that is going to happen.” In a briefing after the hours-long meeting, Netanyahu said that half of the talks centered on Iran, including the Islamic Republic’s involvement in the wars in Iraq, Yemen and, particularly as regards Israel’s security, Syria, where Tehran is attempting to establish a permanent military foothold. The two leaders also discussed the nuclear deal, which the White House is attempting to revise with the help of European allies. In this respect, Netanyahu told the U.S. president that the agreement needed to be “fully nixed, or fully fixed,” placing a specific emphasis on the so-called “sunset clauses” that remove restrictions on Tehran after narrow time frames, including limits on its ability to enrich uranium in just over a decade from now. For his part, President Trump has twice de-certified Iran’s compliance with the accord and in January vowed to re-impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic unless the pact’s “disastrous flaws” are amended. To this end, Washington wants to forge a “follow-on” deal to address both Iran’s “nefarious” regional ambitions and its perceived flouting of a United Nations Security Council resolution related to its ballistic missile program.