Netanyahu confirms meeting with Trump in DC next week

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday that he will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and other senior officials in Washington next week.

The invitation from Trump “followed the great victory we achieved in ‘Operation Rising Lion’” against Iran, Netanyahu said during a Cabinet meeting. “Capitalizing on success is no less important than achieving it.”

Netanyahu said he is also scheduled to meet with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State and acting White House National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.

“We have a few matters to finalize beforehand to reach a trade agreement, in addition to other issues,” Netanyahu said of his planned meeting with Lutnick. “There will also be meetings with congressional and Senate leaders, as well as security meetings, that I will not detail here.”

According to Israel’s Ynet news outlet, Netanyahu is expected to depart for Washington on Sunday, ahead of a meeting with Trump at the White House the next day.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump previewed next week’s high-stakes meeting with Netanyahu, expressing optimism about a possible Gaza ceasefire and outlining the key topics on their agenda.

“We hope it’s going to happen,” Trump said when asked about the prospects for a ceasefire in Gaza. “And we’re looking forward to it happening sometime next week. We want to get our hostages out. We want to get the hostages out.”

Looking ahead to his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump said the two leaders would discuss a range of issues, starting with what he called the “great success” of Israel’s recent military operation against Iran. “We had an incredible success, like nobody’s had in many, many years. That was a precision war strike,” Trump said, referring to the American bombing of the Fordow nuclear site.

“The word ‘obliteration’ can now be used because the Atomic Energy Commission said you can’t even get into the place. It was demolished. It was really demolished. It was a great, brilliant strike, and [we’ll discuss] how to go forward,” the president asserted.

Trump added that the talks would also focus on Gaza, emphasizing ongoing efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages. “We got a lot of hostages back, but we’re going to talk about Gaza,” he said.