Trump assures Netanyahu that he is holding "direct talks" with Iran about the nuclear program.

Washington/BarcelonaPresident Donald Trump assured his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, that he is holding "direct talks" with Tehran regarding Iran's nuclear program and that the United States will meet there this Saturday. "We are having direct talks with Iran, and they have already begun. They will continue on Saturday. We have a very important meeting, and I think everyone agrees that reaching an agreement would be the best thing that could happen," Trump said from the Oval Office, where he met with the Israeli prime minister on Monday. Netanyahu's second official visit to Washington comes amid the breakdown of the ceasefire in Gaza, President Trump's trade war, and the White House's recent moves with the ayatollahs' regime.

"Maybe we will reach an agreement, and that would be very good. It will be very good for Iran, I can assure you," Trump insisted to reporters, declining to say where the meeting would take place but affirming that it will be "a high-level meeting." "If negotiations with Iran are not successful, I believe Iran will be in grave danger," Trump said, in a veiled threat reminiscent of his statements last week, when he threatened to "bomb" the country if a nuclear deal was not reached. Trump, who in 2018 tore up the Iran nuclear deal forged by his predecessor Barack Obama, told reporters that he believes the current agreement "will be different and perhaps stronger."

In recent days, the president had escalated verbal tensions with Iran. Last week, the US president spoke of a possible attack on the ayatollahs' regime if a nuclear deal is not reached. "If they don't make a deal, there will be bombings," he told NBC News. Tehran's response was that "if the United States or Israel bombs Iran under the pretext of nuclear weapons, Iran will be forced to move toward producing an atomic bomb." The meeting with Netanyahu comes before Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia—the date has yet to be finalized. In fact, the Arab country has already offered to mediate between the US and Iran to reach a nuclear agreement. Within the region, Iran has always represented one of the greatest threats to Israel's existence.

Trade war

Netanyahu is the first president to meet with Trump after he unleashed a trade war on the world with his tariff announcement. The Israeli prime minister's visit had been arranged on an express basis, after Tel Aviv was astonished to discover that the US president had imposed 17% tariffs on them. Before "Liberation Day," Israel had eliminated the last remaining levies on US imports to avoid the so-called reciprocal tariffs. But it didn't work.

In the Oval Office, Netanyahu announced that he would eliminate "the trade deficit with the United States." "We believe it's the right thing to do, and they also eliminated trade barriers, a variety of barriers that have been put in place unnecessarily," the Israeli prime minister defended. Trump appreciated the gesture and announced that he would eventually establish a new trade agreement with Israel, but did not provide further details.

The Israeli Prime Minister's previous visit ended with the bombshell announcement of Trump's plans to turn Gaza into a sort of resort Mediterranean hotelier. "The Riviera of the Middle East," as the US president said at the press conference and has continued to repeat. "I think it's an incredibly valuable piece of real estate, and I think it's something we would be involved in. But you know, having a peacekeeping force like the United States there, controlling and managing the Gaza Strip, would be a good thing, because right now, for many years, all I hear about is death, Hamas, and problems," he said, in a kind of "free zone." Before the meeting with Netanyahu, Trump had a four-way call with French President Emmanuel Macron; Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi; and King Abdullah of Jordan about the Gaza war.

Netanyahu, cornered

Domestically, when Netanyahu visited Trump in February—he was the first foreign leader to be received at the White House during the Republican's second term—his administration was in the ICU. Its far-right allies, who promote a messianic version of the Hebrew state incompatible with democracy, had abandoned it for having agreed to the truce with Hamas. Furthermore, the ultra-Orthodox parties were up in arms against plans to eliminate their exemption from military service. It was far from clear whether Netanyahu would be able to stay in power, and this visit became a lifeline. Trump, who had sponsored the truce and had boasted about his return to the White House, gave him the green light to break the ceasefire, replenished Israeli arsenals, and made clear, with the AI-generated video—in which the two appeared swimming in a hotel pool—about the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

When Netanyahu returned to Israel, he made the point: if you bring me down, we'll have to call elections and lose this golden opportunity to make Trump's plan for Gaza a reality. The longest-serving prime minister in Israel's history survived again, he managed to the approval of the budget in the Parliament and consolidated his blog, despite the fact that protests in solidarity with the Israeli hostages held in Gaza continued in the streets, accusing him of leading them to certain death.

Netanyahu has returned to the White House, on an impromptu visit this week while on an official trip to Hungary, where his ally Viktor Orbán has defied the obligation to arrest him so that the International Criminal Court can try him for war crimes. He is cornered again, now for judicial rather than political reasons. The police and judicial scandals involving his closest advisors continue to grow. The most heartbreaking aspect is what the Israeli press has dubbed Qatargate, in which three members of the prime minister's press team are accused of receiving bribes from Doha to paint Qatar in a positive light and wage a media campaign against Egypt. These bribes continued with the Gaza war, in which both Qatar and Egypt are acting as mediators.

Netanyahu has reacted violently to the investigations: he has dismissed Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence services, and has begun the process of dismissing the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, who was in charge of the judicial procedure, while accelerating the reform of the justice system to politically control the appointment. The nervousness in the prime minister's office has reached such a point that he called the investigated advisors "hostages," a slap in the face to the families of the 59 Israelis kidnapped in Gaza for 18 months.

'Bibileaks'

The other scandal dogging Netanyahu dates back to the fall of 2024 and is known as Bibileaks, or the Bibi leaks, as the prime minister is popularly known. Two members of his office's press team, two defense officials, and a reservist are in pretrial detention accused of having spread false information to foreign media outlets—the German tabloid Picture and the British Jewish Chronicle– according to which the then Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, was trying to flee Gaza with the hostages for the Philadelphia Corridor, on the border with EgyptNetanyahu relied on these reports to justify his inability to withdraw Israeli troops from the corridor, torpedoing the months-long truce with Hamas. The leak came shortly after six Israeli hostages were killed in a failed rescue attempt, and the British publication eventually withdrew it due to its lack of credibility.

In both cases, in addition to the officials' actions being illegal, Israel's national security was compromised for the benefit of Netanyahu's political survival. If any of those now indicted decide to incriminate him, Netanyahu himself could find himself charged.