BICOM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump will meet later today in New York on the eve of the UN General Assembly.

The two leaders will meet at the Palace Hotel in mid-town Manhattan at 6pm UK time for their first discussion since President Trump visited Israel in May. Prime Minister Netanyahu will focus on the Iranian threat, issues surrounding the 2015 nuclear deal and Iran’s growing influence in Syria and the wider region.

Last night, two of Trump’s senior representatives, Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt met with Netanyahu for preliminary discussions ahead of the meeting with President Trump.

Netanyahu will ask the President to improve the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany). His ideas for improvements include harsher sanctions on Iranian violations; increased monitoring of nuclear activities; delaying by a decade the date when Iran is allowed to build new nuclear infrastructure; and decommissioning their advanced centrifuges.

In addition, the Israeli Prime Minister will push the US President to curb Iranian influence in a post-ISIS reality. Netanyahu recently warned that “Israel will not accept Iranian entrenchment on our northern border, which endangers not only us but also our Arab neighbours, and we are committed to acting against it”.

Netanyahu has a number of specific requests for Trump including; halting Iran’s ballistic missile programme, stopping Iranian funding to Hezbollah and Hamas, preventing Iran from securing a long-term foothold in Syria and removing Iranian-backed militias next to Israel’s northern border.

Netanyahu is also scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández and Brazilian President Michel Temer.

Channel 2 News reported that Netanyahu rejected an invitation to meet Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. Although this was officially blamed on his tight schedule, it had been suggested that the Prime Minister refused to meet due to Sweden’s problematic stance towards Israel.

Trump is also expected to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday to discuss the peace process. The Trump administration is reported to have exerted pressure on the Palestinian leader to soften his rhetoric in his speech to the UN General Assembly.