FILE- President Donald Trump shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the end of a news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. AP
The hastily arranged White House meeting is set to begin at 11:00 am local time (1600 GMT).
Netanyahu had been expected to come to Washington for a February 19 meeting of Trump's "Board of Peace" for Gaza, but reportedly brought forward his visit as the US-Iran talks proceeded.
Making his sixth visit to the United States since Trump returned to office in January 2025, he will be pushing the US leader to take a harder line on Iran's ballistic missile program.
Tehran, which resumed talks with Washington last week in Oman, warned Monday of "destructive influences" on diplomacy ahead of the Israeli premier's visit.
"Our negotiating party is America. It is up to America to decide to act independently of the pressures and destructive influences that are detrimental to the region," said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei in a weekly press briefing on Tuesday.
Tehran has rejected expanding the scope of its talks with the United States beyond the issue of its nuclear program, stressing that its missile program is a defensive issue that “cannot be negotiated now or in the future.”
What does Trump think?
Already in town Tuesday night, Netanyahu met with Trump's Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
They "discussed regional issues, and they provided an update on the first round of negotiations they held with Iran last Friday," according to a statement on the X account for the Israeli prime minister.
While talking up hopes of a nuclear deal, Trump warned in an interview with the Axios news outlet earlier Tuesday that he was "thinking" of sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region.
"Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time," Trump said. "We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going."
Trump, who ordered US strikes on Tehran's nuclear sites during Israel's 12-day war on Iran last June, separately told Fox Business that any deal would have to involve "no nuclear weapons, no missiles."
He added that Iran's leaders "want to make a deal" but "it's got to be a good deal."
* This story was edited by Ahram Online.
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