Netanyahu in Washington as US presses for Israeli pullbacks in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria

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Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel on Monday, 27 July, for talks with Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday. It is his first visit to Washington since the war against Iran began on 28 February, a war The National says Trump launched alongside Israel. Monday was day 150 of the conflict, and according to The American Conservative neither the United States nor Iran carried out new attacks that day. Sources differ on how often the two leaders have met at the White House in Trump's second term: The National counts Tuesday as the sixth visit, The American Conservative as the eighth meeting.

Israel's Channel 13, cited by both TASS and the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, reported that Netanyahu informed his ministers that Washington is insisting on a series of Israeli troop withdrawals on three fronts: the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. The channel, quoting a source close to the matter, did not specify whether Washington means a full or a partial pullback. Netanyahu is quoted as saying he will act on his own and not give way: "I will tell them no." The report has not been confirmed by either government.

Israeli forces still hold part of Gaza and are present in buffer zones on the Lebanese and Syrian borders. A White House official told The National the agenda covers Iran, the Trilateral Framework in Lebanon and an expansion of the Abraham Accords. Both Netanyahu and Zelensky will also attend the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on 11 July aged 71.

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Israel's public line is unchanged. Netanyahu said on departure that he was travelling "to ensure the security, strength, and future of our dear State of Israel" and to "expand the circle of peace around us", as reported by the Jerusalem Post and The American Conservative. Per Rzeczpospolita, his government holds that the army will remain behind the so-called Yellow Line in Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed and the territory demilitarised, and that Israel must approve which states may contribute troops to the International Stabilisation Force.

Trump described his alignment with Netanyahu on Iran as "pretty close. Yeah, a little difference, but pretty close", and said talks with Tehran were continuing and a deal possible, while warning Washington would resume military action if diplomacy failed. The National reports he has voiced frustration over continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon and pushed back on Israeli objections to a possible F-35 sale to Turkey: "Nobody tells me what we should be selling."

Iran rejects the premise of a negotiating breakthrough. AP reported that regional mediators had brought Washington and Tehran back towards talks, but Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said his country had not asked for a restart, saying negotiations with the US are "not in our DNA".

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The Emirati outlet The National frames the day around Trump's dual role, hosting two wartime leaders while waging his own war, and ties both meetings to electoral calendars: Israeli elections in October and US midterms in November, with the war's cost weighing on the American economy. Russia's TASS leads with the withdrawal demand itself rather than the summit, and notes that Graham is on Russia's list of terrorists and extremists. Serbia's Politika, citing CNN, presents the two meetings as parallel and procedural, one on the Russia-Ukraine peace process, one on Iran and Lebanon. Rzeczpospolita places Netanyahu's refusal next to an Axios report that the Trump administration is preparing for a prolonged escalation with Iran.

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Until Monday the visit had been framed mainly as an Iran meeting, with Bloomberg reporting that Netanyahu would press Trump to keep watch on Tehran's nuclear programme. The Channel 13 report adds a second and more contentious axis: the presence of Israeli troops on three fronts. It follows the Israeli cabinet's approval on 26 July for the International Stabilisation Force to enter Gaza under Trump's 20-point plan, with an initial few hundred troops, around 500 from Morocco, plus contingents including Kazakhstan and Kosovo, and temporary shelters planned in Rafah. In Lebanon, US-backed talks in Rome produced an Israeli start of withdrawal from "pilot zones" in the south, with a further round due next week.

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The meeting could confirm the Lebanon track as the one area of movement, extending the pilot-zone handovers to the Lebanese army while Gaza and Syria remain unresolved and the Yellow Line stays in place. Alternatively, an open disagreement over withdrawals could harden into a public rift, with Washington linking further support or arms decisions, including the Turkey F-35 question, to Israeli concessions.

A third path runs through Iran. With the Wall Street Journal reporting that senior US commanders are weighing munitions constraints against renewed strikes, and Tehran denying it sought talks, the current pause could either lead into a negotiated framework or break, which would push the withdrawal dispute aside and widen the regional fronts, including the Houthi-Saudi exchanges and the fallout from the reported Ukrainian attack on an Iranian vessel.