
Netanyahu returns to White House holding all the cards in Gaza talks
Netanyahu and Trump have a complex personal relationship – and Trump openly vented frustration at him last month during efforts to negotiate a truce with Iran – but the two have appeared in lockstep since the US launched a bombing run against Iran's nuclear programme, fulfilling a key goal for Israeli war planners.
Netanyahu arrives in Washington in a strong political position, observers have said, potentially giving him the diplomatic cover he would need to end the war in Gaza without facing a revolt from his rightwing supporters that could lead to the collapse of his government.
Hamas this week responded 'positively' to a 60-day Israeli ceasefire proposal. But its negotiators have sought for Israel to guarantee a permanent end to the war and to manage the distribution of aid in Gaza through the UN, rather than the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has had a tumultuous rollout marred by near-daily incidents of Israeli soldiers opening fire on civilians gathering near its distribution sites, killing hundreds of people.
Israel has said the proposed changes to a ceasefire proposal are unacceptable, but Netanyahu has said he will nonetheless send negotiators to Qatar for indirect talks with Hamas. Before boarding his flight to the US on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel had an opportunity 'to expand the circle of peace far beyond what we could have imagined'.
Netanyahu also said Israeli negotiators heading to ceasefire talks in Qatar had clear instructions to achieve a ceasefire agreement under conditions Israel had accepted, Reuters reported, and added that Trump could help achieve those goals.
'We have already transformed the Middle East beyond recognition, and we now have a chance to bring a great future to the people of Israel and the Middle East,' he said.
Those will be the first talks in six weeks and Trump has told reporters he is very optimistic about the potential for a ceasefire. 'There could be a Gaza deal next week,' Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One on Friday.
Before the meetings, Netanyahu's top strategic adviser, Ron Dermer, huddled with the US vice-president, JD Vance, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, for consultations in Washington. During those meetings, the Guardian has been told, the two sides discussed postwar conditions that would allow Israel to banish Hamas from the Gaza Strip and task the international community with responsibility for its rebuilding.
'We have no interest to stay in Gaza,' Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Damon, said in response to a question from the Guardian. 'I think we will make sure that in terms of security, we have the ability to act in Gaza, very similar to what's happening today in Judea and Samaria,' territories known internationally as the occupied West Bank.
Hamas has pushed for guarantees from the US that Israel will end the war permanently. Damon, however, said an initial 60-day ceasefire was 'not a commitment for ending the war', and that further discussions on a permanent ceasefire would take place in that period.
'We're going to have to think about the mechanism which will allow Israel to declare that the war is over, will allow international organisations and other players to step in and we make sure that Hamas is not there,' he said.
US and Israeli officials have said they believe the military campaign in Gaza – which has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians – has allowed Netanyahu to effectively dictate terms to Hamas and that the group has very little leverage in negotiations.
Sign up to First Thing
Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters
after newsletter promotion
The latest version of the deal would have Hamas release 28 Israeli hostages – 10 alive and 18 bodies – over the course of the 60-day ceasefire. The UN and Palestine Red Crescent Society would be given additional licence to expand aid operations in Gaza. The Israeli army would withdraw first from parts of northern Gaza, and one week later would pull out from parts of the south.
The deal would leave approximately 22 hostages, 10 of them alive, still held in Gaza.
Netanyahu has boasted that his expected meetings in Washington with Trump and other senior officials, including Vance, the secretary of defence, Pete Hegseth, and Rubio, were in part achieved by Israel's readiness to confront Iran.
'These come in the wake of the great victory that we achieved,' Netanyahu said in remarks to the Israeli government. 'Taking advantage of the success is no less an important part of achieving the success.'
A key question is whether Trump's patience with Netanyahu will last. He has at times been frustrated with the slow pace of negotiations over the Gaza ceasefire. 'MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT,' he wrote on social media a week ago.
And as he sought to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Iran last week, he had what looked like a minor meltdown as he complained on the White House lawn: '[Iran] violated [the ceasefire] but Israel violated it, too ... I'm not happy with Israel,' he said. 'We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing.'
As Netanyahu comes to Washington on Monday for the third time since Trump's inauguration, he appears to know exactly what he is doing. And while Trump has touted his bona fides as a dealmaker, the decision for when and how a ceasefire is implemented in Gaza appears ultimately out of his hands.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
US air strikes on Iran were absolutely necessary, says Patel
Dame Priti Patel has urged ministers to 'come off the fence' over whether US air strikes on Iran 'were absolutely necessary' earlier this summer. The Conservative frontbencher pressed Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer for details about the 'UK's response to the actions of the Iranian regime' in the Commons on Monday. It followed Operation Midnight Hammer last month, an air raid when US defence forces attacked Iranian nuclear sites near Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. UK Attorney General Lord Hermer is reported to have raised legal concerns about any potential British involvement in the conflict beyond defending its allies. 'Two weeks have passed since the US air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities,' shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti said. 'Does the minister have an assessment of their impact, and what is his response to the Iranian regime now prohibiting co-operation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and their inspectors leaving Iran? 'Given Tehran's refusal to co-operate, is the minister and the department in discussions with the partners about snapback sanctions being applied (by reinstating UN sanctions on Iran removed through the 2015 Iran nuclear deal) and other measures? 'Is he concerned that demonstrates that Iran will continue to pursue nuclear weapons and their entire programme? 'And with the information received from discussions with America, Israel and other intelligence partners, will the Government finally come off the fence about those strikes and agree with this side of the House that they were absolutely necessary?' Mr Falconer replied: 'I won't provide, I'm afraid, a detailed commentary from the despatch box on the extent of damage from the strikes, for reasons that I'm sure (Dame Priti) and the rest of the House will understand. 'I can confirm we are in discussions about the snapback mechanisms. As the Prime Minister (Sir Keir Starmer) has said, as the Foreign Secretary (David Lammy) has said, as I have said, we cannot see Iran get a nuclear weapon – snapback is an important lever. 'We're talking with our E3 partners and indeed the Americans about what role snapback can play. 'We hope to see a diplomatic solution. That is ultimately the most enduring way to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon, but we will continue to consider all diplomatic tools including snapback.' Andrew Murrison referred to comments which Defence Secretary John Healey made on social media website X, when the Cabinet minister said the 'US has taken action to alleviate the grave threat that Iran poses to global security'. The Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire told the Commons: 'The Defence Secretary correctly has said that Operation Midnight Hammer has alleviated a grave threat, but the Attorney General appears to be less clear and wonders if it was illegal, whilst the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary appear to sit on the fence. 'Sorry to put the minister on the spot – does he agree with the Attorney General or with the Defence Secretary?' Mr Falconer replied: 'The Defence Secretary and the Attorney General are doing rather different roles, and I don't think they're in disagreement – and in any case, collective responsibility would bind them both and indeed me.' The Foreign Office minister, whose portfolio includes the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, also referred to a 'gap' in the law which independent reviewer of state threats legislation Jonathan Hall identified in a 2025 report. Mr Hall recommended that the Government should be able to issue 'statutory alert and liability threat notices' against foreign intelligence services. 'By way of example, this strong power would be available for use against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps', he wrote, referring to the Iran-backed organisation. It would be a 'new proscription-type power', similar to existing terrorism legislation used to ban organisations such as Hamas and National Action, the reviewer said. When Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme Adam Jogee asked Mr Falconer to 'elaborate a little more on what that means', the minister replied: 'A state in this case has proved a persistent threat in the UK using methods unlike those usually employed by a state.' He said the Government was 'seeking to fill' the gap in the law.


The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘We don't have any access': Iran's president backs Trump's claims of damage caused by U.S. strikes in interview
Iranian President Mahmoud Pezeshkian offered a rare moment of insight regarding the state of his country's nuclear program over the weekend in an interview with Tucker Carlson that was published Monday. U.S. forces struck three facilities across Iran associated with the development of nuclear weapons on June 22. The Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan sites were hit with an array of weaponry including 'bunker-buster' bombs dropped by B-52 bombers with the capability of damaging or destroying underground targets. An initial intelligence assessment obtained by Reuters and other news outlets reported that the strikes only set Iranian development efforts back by months, but the White House and Defense Department have insisted that further assessments put the damage at a greater level than was initially reported. In the lead-up to the interview's publication, Carlson told viewers of his channel that he didn't ask Pezeshkian about the status of the nuclear program and the country's weapons development, given that he expected the Iranian government to be deceptive on the matter. Still, the Iranian president offered a comment about the program's fate offhandedly during the interview, telling Carlson: 'the facilities there have been severely damaged, and therefore we don't have any access to them, and we cannot see - unless this access is going to be [restored], we have to see how much they have been damaged.' The admission that Iranian officials are apparently still unable to access the underground facilities targeted by U.S. strikes lends credence to the Trump administration's assertions that heavy damage was done, potentially knocking them totally out of commission for the foreseeable future. An initial U.S. intelligence assessment was leaked to the press and caused headaches for the administration as it claimed that Iran's stockpile of uranium was not hit during the attack and that centrifuges at the three sites were mostly intact following the strikes. Officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth angrily scolded reporters after publication of the assessment, which they blamed on an effort to make the president look bad. A report from the Wall Street Journa l in the days after the initial assessment's leak detailed a separate assessment delivered to members of Congress by CIA Director John Ratcliffe. According to Ratcliffe, the strikes were successful in achieving total destruction of the metals conversion site at Esfahan, which was Iran's only known facility capable of converting enriched uranium into metal — a key final-stage process in production of a weapon, and a capacity that Iran will require years to rebuild. International Atomic Energy Agency director Rafael Grossi told CBS News in late June that Iran could be producing enriched uranium again within a matter of months, explaining that the country's nuclear program did not suffer 'total' destruction. But the lack of a metals conversion facility could mean that the country is incapable of producing anything beyond a relatively unsophisticated weapon, unless it harbors a secret second site outside of Esfahan. The Times of Israel reported one expert as saying that it was a credible possibility for Iran to have another hidden metal conversion site. 'It is clear that there has been severe damage, but it's not total damage, first of all,' Gross said. 'And secondly, Iran has the capacities there; industrial and technological capacities. So if they so wish, they will be able to start doing this again.' NBC News reported in late June that experts believed the destruction of Iran's air defense systems and continued efforts by Israeli intelligence to uncover hidden aspects of Iran's nuclear capabilities would make keeping a site like Esfahan hidden a near impossibility. 'Iran's principal challenge in pursuing a covert pathway is going to be keeping it hidden from U.S. and Israeli detection,' Eric Brewer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative told NBC. 'That's the key challenge, because both countries, particularly Israel, have demonstrated an ability to penetrate Iran's nuclear program.'

South Wales Argus
22 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
King tells of ‘profound sadness' in letter to Trump after Texas floods
Charles 'offered his deepest sympathy' to those who lost loved ones over the July Fourth weekend, the British Embassy in Washington said. 'Following the devastating flooding in Texas, His Majesty King Charles has written to President Trump to express his profound sadness at the tragic loss of life,' the embassy said. Following the devastating flooding in Texas, His Majesty King Charles has written to President Trump to express his profound sadness at the tragic loss of life. He offered his deepest sympathy to all families who have lost loved ones and paid tribute to courage and selflessness… — British Embassy Washington (@UKinUSA) July 7, 2025 'He offered his deepest sympathy to all families who have lost loved ones and paid tribute to courage and selflessness of the emergency service and volunteers.' Operators of Camp Mystic, a century-old summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, said they lost 27 campers and counsellors, confirming their worst fears after a wall of water slammed into cabins built along the edge of the Guadalupe River. With additional rain on the way, more flooding remains a threat in saturated parts of the US state. Authorities said the death toll was sure to rise as crews looked for many people who were missing.