US President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and stop talk of an attack on Iran, according to a source familiar with the conversation. <\/p>\n
The two leaders spoke on the phone on Monday. Trump later said the call went \u201cvery well, very smooth.\u201d <\/p>\n
The call for Israel to change course comes as Washington pushes for a nuclear deal with Iran and engages in indirect talks with Hamas over a ceasefire in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu convened his top ministers Tuesday night after there was \u201csome progress\u201d in negotiations toward a ceasefire deal, according to his office. The purpose of the meeting was to give updates on the negotiations and discuss next steps. <\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar said there had been recent progress in ceasefire talks that also aim to bring back hostages held in Gaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael is serious in its will to secure a hostage deal. There has recently been certain progress,\u201d Sa\u2019ar told a news conference in Jerusalem, adding that \u201cin light of past experience, I don\u2019t want to overstate it at this point.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Thursday, Hamas said it remains open to the ceasefire deal proposed by US envoy Steve Witkoff, but said it requires stronger guarantees against Israeli attacks. <\/p>\n
In a televised speech on Thursday, Khalil Al-Hayya, a high-ranking official in the militant group, said Hamas has not rejected Witkoff\u2019s proposal but has submitted amendments with stronger security guarantees. <\/p>\n
Hamas wants any deal to include a permanent end to the war in Gaza and a withdrawal of Israeli forces. <\/p>\n
Trump and Netanyahu appear increasingly at odds over the war in Gaza as the conflict passes the 20-month mark. Netanyahu has made clear that his war goals include the complete disarmament and removal of Hamas, while Trump has pushed for an end to the war. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of several major issues in the region where a growing rift is emerging between the US and Israel. In recent weeks, the Trump administration bypassed Israel on a trip to the Middle East, reached a ceasefire deal with the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen that failed to halt their ballistic missile attacks at Israel, and lifted sanctions on Syria \u2013 even as Israel warns against legitimizing a regime run by former jihadists. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Trump said his administration is \u201ctrying to make a deal so that there\u2019s no destruction and death\u201d in Iran. The sixth round of talks between the US and Iran is slated to start in the coming days. <\/p>\n
During their call, Trump asked Netanyahu to stop talking about an attack on Iran, the source familiar with the conversation said, and halt the leaks and reports about plans and preparations for an Israeli attack on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities. <\/p>\n
The Trump administration has also been trying to expand the Abraham Accords, the landmark series of agreements from Trump\u2019s first term that saw Israel normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. <\/p>\n
But Saudi Arabia \u2013 whose agreement to such a deal would be the ultimate prize \u2013 has repeatedly made clear that it will not normalize relations with Israel without concrete steps towards recognition of a Palestinian state and a plan to implement the two-state solution. <\/p>\n
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said this week that a two-state solution is no longer a goal of US policy, as it had been for decades of both Republican and Democrat administrations. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there\u2019s no room for it,\u201d Huckabee told Bloomberg News in an interview in Jerusalem. He said it won\u2019t happen \u201cin our lifetime.\u201d Huckabee has previously advocated for Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and once said that \u201cthere\u2019s really no such thing as a Palestinian.\u201d <\/p>\n
Earlier in the war, Trump laid out vague plans for a \u201cGaza Riviera\u201d that envisioned US control of the coastal enclave and the displacement of large parts of the Palestinian population living there. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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US President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and stop talk of an attack on Iran, according to a source familiar with the conversation. The two leaders spoke on the phone on Monday. Trump later said the call went \u201cvery well, very smooth.\u201d The call for Israel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}