U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday. The Israeli leader was originally scheduled to travel to Washington on Feb. 18, but renewed U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran last week pushed up the meeting, as Netanyahu seeks to make sure that Israel’s concerns are included in any deal.
Wednesday’s conversation—the two leaders’ seventh since Trump took office in January 2025—was more low-profile than usual. Netanyahu entered the White House out of view from cameras, and he met with Trump behind closed doors, with no scheduled press conference after. However, Netanyahu made clear ahead of the meeting that he intended to encourage Trump to press for limits on Tehran’s missile arsenal as well as an end to Iranian support for its proxy groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, in upcoming nuclear talks.
U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday. The Israeli leader was originally scheduled to travel to Washington on Feb. 18, but renewed U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran last week pushed up the meeting, as Netanyahu seeks to make sure that Israel’s concerns are included in any deal.
Wednesday’s conversation—the two leaders’ seventh since Trump took office in January 2025—was more low-profile than usual. Netanyahu entered the White House out of view from cameras, and he met with Trump behind closed doors, with no scheduled press conference after. However, Netanyahu made clear ahead of the meeting that he intended to encourage Trump to press for limits on Tehran’s missile arsenal as well as an end to Iranian support for its proxy groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, in upcoming nuclear talks.
Trump appears to be on the same page. “It’s got to be a good deal: no nuclear weapons, no missiles,” the U.S. president told Fox Business on Tuesday. He has threatened strikes on Iran if negotiators fail to reach an agreement and said such an attack could look similar to when U.S. forces targeted three Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025.
A second round of U.S.-Iran talks is set to take place next week. But Tehran remains opposed to expanding negotiations beyond its nuclear program. “The Islamic Republic’s missile capabilities are nonnegotiable,” Ali Shamkhani, an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Wednesday.
Read more in today’s World Brief: Netanyahu Urges Trump to Include Israel’s Demands in Iran Nuclear Talks.
This post is part of FP’s ongoing coverage of the Trump administration. Follow along here.
