US President Donald Trump announced in a phone interview with Axios that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested a meeting with him at the White House, and that the meeting could take place next week.
Trump said, 'We get along very well. (Netanyahu) knows who the boss is here.'
This will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since February, when Netanyahu presented a joint war plan against Iran at the Situation Room.
An Israeli official said that due to Trump's visit to the NATO summit in Turkey on July 7-8, the meeting could be early next week, but that it 'could take place next week.'
A statement from Netanyahu's office said that the prime minister called Trump on Friday on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of US Independence Day, and that the leaders 'agreed to meet in the US soon.'
Trump's statements on Iran
Trump said he was following the funeral of Iran's former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, who he claimed was killed in a joint US-Israeli operation on the first day of the war.
Describing the Iranians as 'begging to make a deal,' Trump claimed that the two sides decided to pause negotiations for a week until the events related to Khamenei's funeral are completed, and that neither side would open fire on the other during that time.
Trump said, 'They are all there. We could destroy them all with a single shot, but we won't do that because then we would have no one left to negotiate with.'
Noting that he was surprised to see some Iranians crying at the funeral, Trump said he thought people hated Khamenei, and added, 'Maybe they are fake tears.'
