Without Mount Makosh and F-35s to Turkey, Netanyahu: "My best conversation with Trump"
In Israel, it was claimed that intelligence about the secret nuclear site in Iran and the possibility of attacking it did not come up in the conversation, nor did the stealth deal for Turkey. After the meeting at the White House, which lasted about an hour and 20 minutes and did not include statements to the media, the PM said: "It was excellent."
The Prime Minister calls his seventh meeting with Donald Trump in Washington since his return to the presidency - and one of the shortest of them all - as "my best conversation" with him.
"I just finished an excellent meeting with President Trump, and when I say excellent, it is not just lip service," Netanyahu said in a video he released shortly after the meeting at the White House, and just before the start of the memorial service for Lindsey Graham, which he attended.
"Mount Makosh? Not a big problem"
Netanyahu said that it was "a conversation with full partnership, with mutual support, with an understanding of the common goal - to ensure that Iran will not have nuclear weapons and also other goals. This was one of the best conversations I have had with the President of the United States, Trump. All of his senior staff was there, our senior staff, and it was an opportunity to exchange ideas and coordinate, which is important for the security and future of the State of Israel."
At the meeting, which did not include the presence of journalists and statements to the press and took place against the backdrop of noticeable distrust in Washington towards Netanyahu, the Prime Minister said that Lindsey Graham was Israel's friend number 1. Trump remarked: "I am Israel's friend number 1, Lindsey was number 2."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the meeting "positive and productive," and a senior official familiar with the meeting said that "the chemistry between the leaders was visible. Trump and Netanyahu reiterated their common goal of preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons."
Also, the head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate, Tzipi Hotovely, said in a briefing after the meeting in the Oval Office that it "was excellent." According to her, "the conversation focused on Iran, and on the margins, the matter of expanding the Abraham Accords was raised."
Hotovely added that "there is full understanding between the Israelis and the Americans that Iran must not have nuclear weapons. Israel is not pushing the United States to military action. The meeting also dealt with regional analysis. There was no American demand for withdrawal - not in Lebanon, not in Syria, and not in Gaza. The military achievements are being maintained."
Hotovely claimed that at the meeting - which was joined by, among others, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe - the subject of a possible strike on "Mount Makosh" did not come up. Before the meeting, it was claimed that Netanyahu would pass information to Trump about that secret site in Iran, to which, according to Israeli intelligence, the Islamic Republic had moved centrifuges.
In an interview with "Fox News," shortly before the meeting that lasted about an hour and 20 minutes, Trump said that "Mount Makosh is not a big problem," and took a jab at Netanyahu: "I don't need Bibi to tell me that, he tells me that because he wants me to stay involved. We have the best cameras in the world, we know exactly what is happening there. I heard that Bibi said that, I said - why don't you tell me that, why do you have to announce it to the world? I know exactly what is happening there."
In addition, Hotovely claimed that the Turkish issue did not come up, nor did the supply of F-35 stealth fighter jets, which Netanyahu had called not to transfer to Ankara. According to her, a Palestinian state was also not discussed in the conversation: "There was no tension in it, quite the opposite. A positive meeting, in a very warm atmosphere. The essence of the meeting is the coordination. Because there is very great coordination, there is no need to ask us to do things or not to do them."
Israel's Ambassador to the USA, Yechiel Leiter, said: "A great meeting at the White House with President Trump and PM Netanyahu. Israel and the United States are united at the highest levels - a partnership that is a model for imitation that continues to benefit both our countries and the whole world."
