Report: Netanyahu fails to arrange Trump meeting as US pushes for Lebanon withdrawal

A meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that was set for this week has been postponed at the request of the American side, a source familiar with the details told Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

While one source said the situation in Iran was behind the delay, two other sources said the meeting was postponed in an effort to pressure Israel into beginning to withdraw troops from the first pilot zone in southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese Army to deploy there instead.

An Israeli source denied that the Americans were the ones who decided to postpone the meeting between Trump and Netanyahu, which he said had been scheduled for Monday. Instead, he attributed the postponement to Netanyahu's decision to postpone his flight to the U.S. due to the postponement of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham's funeral.

However, an official in the Trump administration told Haaretz that no meeting between the two leaders at the White House had been scheduled in the first place.

Netanyahu’s office told Haaretz on Monday that no decision had yet been made on whether Netanyahu would fly to Washington next week. The prime minister's office isn't believed to have prepared for such a flight, even though Graham's official funeral services are set to be held on July 28 and July 29.

One source noted that efforts are being made to schedule a new meeting with Trump early next week. The Israeli source confirmed that the Americans had urged Israel to begin implementing the Israeli army’s withdrawal from pilot areas in southern Lebanon before Trump met with Aoun.

If the meeting does happen, the situation in Iran and Lebanon is expected to be at the top of the agenda.

Israeli sources believe Netanyahu is interested in renewing the war with Iran and having the Israeli army play an active role in a military campaign. As Israel's election nears, a major assault on Iran could destabilize the regime, even though that failed to happen in the previous round of fighting in the spring.

In an interview with Axios earlier this month, Trump said Netanyahu had sought the meeting, which could have taken place as early as the following week. A significant rift has developed between Washington and Israel over the war in Iran and Trump's unhappiness with Netanyahu over the latter's insistence on continuing the attacks in Lebanon, Haaretz said.

Tensions between the two escalated into a shouting match, according to an Axios report that neither side denied. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, considered the most moderate voice in the administration on Iran and who is responsible for conducting negotiations with Tehran, said last week that some in Israel "are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely."

Netanyahu has given interviews to U.S. media outlets in recent weeks in an apparent effort to minimize the damage to his relations with the Trump administration.