Jerusalem
CNN
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President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza and stop talking about attacks on Iran, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
The two leaders spoke on the phone Monday. Trump later said the phone was “very good and very smooth.”
The Israeli call for changes to the course is as Washington promotes nuclear deals with Iran and engages in indirect consultations with Hamas about Gaza’s ceasefire.
CNN reached out to the White House for comment.
Netanyahu called up his top minister on Tuesday night after “some progress” was made in negotiations towards a ceasefire contract, according to his office. The purpose of the meeting was to provide up-to-date information on negotiations and discuss the next steps.
Earlier that day, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he had made recent advances in Gaza’s ceasefire talks aimed at retrieving hostages.
“Israel is serious in its willingness to secure hostage trade. There have been solid progress recently,” Sa’ar told a press conference in Jerusalem, adding, “I don’t want to exaggerate it at this point in light of past experiences.”
On Thursday, Hamas said it would remain accepting the ceasefire contract proposed by US envoy Steve Witkov, but said it needed a stronger guarantee against Israeli attacks.
In a televised speech on Thursday, Khalil al-Heyya, a senior official from the extremist group, said Hamas had not rejected Witkov’s proposal, but submitted the amendments with stronger security guarantees.
Hamas hopes to include a permanent end to the war in Gaza and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Trump and Netanyahu appear to be increasingly at odds in the war in Gaza as the conflict passes the 20-month mark. Netanyahu revealed that his war goals include complete disarmament and removal of Hamas, but Trump is calling for an end to the war.
This is one of several major issues in areas with growing rifts between the US and Israel. Even though the Trump administration has decouped Israel on a trip to the Middle East, reaching a deal with Yemen’s Iran-backed ceasefire with the Houthis, failing to halt ballistic missile attacks in Israel, lifting sanctions against Syria and warning Israel against legalizing ex-jihadist regulations.
Meanwhile, Trump said his administration is “trying to make a deal in Iran so there is no destruction and death.” The sixth round of talks between the US and Iran will begin in the coming days.
In their appeal, Trump asked Netanyahu to stop talking about his attack on Iran, stopping leaks and reports of plans and preparations for Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
Netanyahu repeatedly pushed for military options to halt Iran’s nuclear program. During his conversation with Trump, Netanyahu told Trump that Iran was just trying to buy time and that he wasn’t serious about negotiations, sources said. CNN reported last month that Israel is preparing a possible strike at Iran’s nuclear facility.
The Trump administration is also looking to expand the Abraham Accord, a landmark series from Trump’s first term in which Israel normalized relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
However, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly made clear that an agreement on such a contract would not normalize relations with Israel without the recognition of the Palestinian state and concrete steps towards a plan to implement a solution for the two states.
Israeli Ambassador Mike Huckabee said this week that the two-state solution was for both Republican and Democrat administrations, so the two-state solution is no longer a U.S. policy goal.
“Unless there’s a few important things that change the culture, there’s no room for that,” Huckabee told Bloomberg News in an interview in Jerusalem. He said it wouldn’t happen “in our life.” Huckabee previously defended Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and once said, “There’s really no such thing as the Palestinians.”
Early in the war, Trump created a vague plan for the “Gaza Riviera,” which assumes to control us over us in the coastal enclave and the evacuation of most of the Palestinians who live there.