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WASHINGTON: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, becoming the first foreign leader to personally plead for a reprieve from stinging US tariffs that have shaken the world.
Netanyahu and Trump are also set to discuss Gaza, where a short-lived US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas has collapsed, and growing tensions with Iran.
Trump greeted Netanyahu outside the West Wing and pumped his fist, before the two leaders — both wearing dark suits, red ties and white shirts — went inside for a meeting in the Oval Office.
A planned press conference between the two leaders was canceled at short notice without explanation in an unusual move. During his last visit, Netanyahu and Trump both spoke to reporters in the Oval and then held a press conference.
The Israeli premier’s visit is his second to Trump since the US president returned to power and comes at short notice — just days after Trump slapped a 17 percent tariff on Israel in his “Liberation Day” announcement last week.
Trump refused to exempt the top beneficiary of US military aid from his global tariff salvo as he said Washington had a significant trade deficit with Israel.
Netanyahu said on his way to Washington on Sunday that they would discuss “the hostages, achieving victory in Gaza, and of course the tariff regime that has also been imposed on Israel.”
“I’m the first international leader, the first foreign leader who will meet with President Trump on a matter so crucial to Israel’s economy,” he said in a video statement.
“There is a long line of leaders who want to do this. I believe this reflects the special personal relationship and the unique bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time.”
Netanyahu met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday night soon after his arrival, according to his office.
The Israeli premier also met Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday.
Trump told reporters on Sunday that “We’re going to talk about trade, and we’re going to talk about the obvious subject.”
“There’s a lot of things going on with the Middle East right now that have to be silenced,” he added.
Israel’s war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, and the fate of the Israeli and US hostages still held in Gaza will be a major subject of discussion.
Israel resumed intense strikes on Gaza on March 18, and the weeks-long ceasefire with Hamas that the United States, Egypt and Qatar had brokered collapsed.
Trump has so far backed Israel to the hilt, accusing Hamas of failing to release the hostages.
The United States has also brushed off an incident in which 15 medics and rescuers were killed by Israeli forces last month in Gaza, sparking international condemnation.
Israel’s army chief on Monday ordered a “deeper” investigation into the attack.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron said Monday he had organized a call to Trump with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan during a visit to Cairo, with the leaders also calling for an immediate return to the truce.
The leaders also insisted that the Palestinian Authority alone must be in charge of the post-war governance of the Gaza Strip — rejecting Trump’s plan for the US to “own” the enclave after the war.
On Iran, Trump has been pressing for “direct talks” with Tehran on a new deal to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.
But Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghai said Tehran’s proposal for indirect negotiations was “generous, responsible and wise.”
There has been widespread speculation that Israel, possibly with US help, might attack Iranian facilities if no agreement is reached.
Netanyahu arrived direct from a visit to Hungary where Prime Minister Viktor Orban pulled his country out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) because the court issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli leader over the Gaza war.
Both leaders also spoke by phone with Trump on Thursday.