By Steve Holland, Gram Slattery, Simon Lewis and Alexander Cornwell
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump voiced irritation with Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of their White House meeting on Tuesday, complaining that details of the Israeli prime minister’s planned talking points on Iran had surfaced publicly, in a fresh sign of strain between the two leaders.
Asked about reports that Netanyahu wanted to talk to him about Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified facility buried deep underground near one of Iran’s main nuclear sites, Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname, “I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.”
“Why don’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?” Trump said in an interview with “Fox & Friends.”
The New York Post reported on Monday, citing a source in Jerusalem, that Netanyahu was expected to provide intelligence to Trump that Iran is building up its nuclear facilities at Pickaxe Mountain and is lying about wanting a peace deal.
Netanyahu’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Trump’s remarks.
NETANYAHU HAILS TALKS, PLAYS DOWN STRAINS
In a video released on social media following the meeting, however, Netanyahu described the meeting as “excellent” and “one of the best conversations” he has had with Trump.
“It was a conversation marked by full partnership, mutual support and a shared understanding of our common objective: to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, as well as other goals,” he said.
Photos posted by Netanyahu’s office on X showed the two leaders sitting beside each other in the Oval Office with wide smiles. They were joined by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump met Netanyahu after first having brief closed-door talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described both meetings as “positive and productive.”
Relations with Zelenskiy have warmed as Ukraine has blunted Russian advances in their more than four-year-old war, while Netanyahu faces growing White House frustration over the lack of progress toward a broader settlement in the Iran conflict and criticism from some of Trump’s supporters who oppose deeper U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
The Israeli and Ukrainian leaders were in Washington to attend a memorial service for U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican who was an influential advocate for both Israel and Ukraine in Washington.
Both the Ukraine war and the widening Middle East conflict are at critical junctures. After the collapse of a ceasefire in the Iran war, Trump says he has paused U.S. airstrikes to give diplomacy another chance. Zelenskiy, meanwhile, has been buoyed by Ukraine’s recent successes.
Zelenskiy said after meeting Trump that it was important to step up diplomacy toward ending Russia’s war in his country.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner – Trump’s son-in-law – have agreed to visit Ukraine for the first time as part of the effort to kick-start their mediation efforts with Russia, according to two sources familiar with the conversations.
NETANYAHU SEEKS TRUMP’S SUPPORT FOR REELECTION
Netanyahu has run hot and cold with Trump, who at times has had to rein in the Israeli leader from attacking targets in Lebanon to try to weaken Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
An acrimonious phone call in June in which the president called the prime minister “fucking crazy”, first leaked to the media and later publicly confirmed by Trump himself, laid bare the strains between the two leaders.
Sources familiar with the matter said Netanyahu aimed to get Trump’s support for his reelection campaign ahead of an October 27 vote.
They were also expected to discuss the Abraham Accords, the series of agreements Trump brokered to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
Trump wants to add Saudi Arabia to the accords and conditioned a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the kingdom last week on Riyadh signing up. Riyadh has so far rejected joining the accords without a path toward Palestinian statehood.
AIR DEFENSE AND DRONE DEAL
Zelenskiy and Trump clashed repeatedly in the early months of Trump’s second term, but relations between the two have improved as Ukraine has had greater success in the war, including with increased attacks on Russia’s oil industry.
Zelenskiy said in a Telegram post after Tuesday’s talks that he had discussed with Trump licenses for producing interceptors for the U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems on which Kyiv relies “and other ideas that could help.”
They had also been expected to discuss cooperation on drone production after an initial agreement on unmanned aerial vehicles.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Gram Slattery, Simon Lewis and Alexander Cornwell; additional reporting by Erin Banco, Andrea Shalal, Dan Flynn, Patricia Zengerle, Anna Pruchnicka, Susan Heavey and Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Ross Colvin and Howard Goller)
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