File Photo: President Donald Trump answers a question from a reporter at the end of a news conference with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago. AP
Israel has long called for Iran to cease all uranium enrichment, dial back its ballistic missile program, and cut ties to militant groups across the region.
Iran has always rejected those demands, saying it would only accept some limits on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
Netanyahu, who will be in Washington through Wednesday, has spent his decades-long political career pushing for stronger U.S. action toward Iran.
Israel is the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons and has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Decisions are being made
Netanyahu's visit comes just two weeks after Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, met with the Israeli prime minister in Jerusalem. The U.S. envoys held indirect talks in Oman with Iran's foreign minister on Friday.
Years of nuclear talks have made little progress since Trump scrapped a 2015 agreement with Iran, with strong encouragement from Israel. Iran has shown little willingness to address the other issues, even after suffering repeated setbacks. But the meeting with Trump allows Netanyahu to shape the process and may also bolster his standing back home.
Israel fears a narrow agreement
Trump threatened a military strike against Iran last month, moving several military assets into the region.
Trump shifted his focus from protests against the Iranian regime to Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel have long claimed is aimed at eventually developing weapons. Iran insists its program is entirely peaceful and says it has the right to enrich uranium for civilian purposes.
Sima Shine, an Iran expert formerly with Israel's Mossad spy agency who is now an analyst at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel fears that the U.S. might reach a narrow agreement with Iran in which it would temporarily halt uranium enrichment.
A deal in which Iran halts enrichment for several years would allow Trump to claim victory. But Israel believes any such agreement that does not end Iran's nuclear program and reduce its ballistic missile arsenal will eventually require Israel to launch another wave of strikes, she said.
Iran might be unable to enrich uranium after last year’s strikes, making the idea of a temporary moratorium more appealing.
In November, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran was no longer enriching uranium due to the damage from last year's war. The U.S. and Israeli airstrikes killed nearly 1,000 people in Iran, while Iranian missile barrages killed almost 40 in Israel.
It's unclear how much damage was done to Iran's nuclear program. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been unable to visit the bombed nuclear sites. Satellite images show activity at two of them.
Netanyahu faces an election this year
Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, has long touted his close ties to world leaders, particularly Trump, whom he has praised as the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House. This week's meeting allows Netanyahu to show Israelis he is a player in the Iran talks.
“The issue of relations between Netanyahu and Trump will be the issue of the campaign, and he is saying, ‘Only I can do this, it’s only me,’” Shine said.
Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister, having held the office for a total of over 18 years. His government, the most nationalist and religious in Israel's history, is expected to survive until the election in October, or close to it.
Netanyahu was originally scheduled to visit Washington next week for the Feb. 19 launch of Trump's Board of Peace, an initiative that was initially framed as a mechanism for rebuilding Gaza after the Israeli war in Gaza but has taken on a larger mandate of resolving global crises.
Netanyahu has agreed to join the initiative but is wary of it because it includes Turkey and Qatar, countries he does not want to have a presence in postwar Gaza because of their relations with Hamas.
Moving the visit up could provide an “elegant solution” that allows Netanyahu to skip the launch without offending Trump, Plesner said. Netanyahu's office declined to comment.
*This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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