By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday, with wars in Iran and Ukraine at critical stages and his ties with both leaders markedly different.
Relations with Zelenskiy have warmed as Ukraine has blunted Russian advances, while Netanyahu arrives amid growing White House frustration over the lack of progress toward a broader settlement in the Iran conflict and criticism from some of Trump’s supporters who oppose deeper U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
The two men are in Washington to attend a memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican who was one of Trump’s closest allies and who frequently tried to coax Trump into providing more support for Ukraine’s war.
Zelenskiy said that anti-ballistic defense and strategic cooperation with the U.S. were the “number-one priority” for meetings with Trump and his team, as he arrived in Washington.
“Peace needs to be brought closer,” he said in a post on X.
Both the Ukraine war and widening Middle East conflict are at critical junctures. After the collapse of a ceasefire in the Iran war, Trump says he has paused U.S. airstrikes to give diplomacy another chance. Zelenskiy, meanwhile, has been buoyed by Ukraine’s recent successes.
Still, there is no end in sight for either conflict.
NETANYAHU SEEKS TRUMP’S SUPPORT FOR RE-ELECTION
Netanyahu has run hot and cold with Trump, who at times has had to rein in the Israeli leader from attacking targets in Lebanon to try to weaken Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
An acrimonious phone call in June in which the president called the prime minister “fucking crazy”, first leaked to the media and later publicly confirmed by Trump himself, laid bare the strains between the two leaders.
Sources familiar with the matter said Netanyahu aims to get Trump’s support for his re-election campaign ahead of an October 27 vote.
A meeting with Trump that showcases what has traditionally been a close relationship between the two leaders could help Netanyahu at home where he is struggling in the opinion polls.
“In these complex times, you need to act with both great determination and great wisdom. We will discuss all the issues on the agenda, primarily Iran,” Netanyahu said in a video statement as he departed for Washington.
“Of course, our goal is to protect our security and also to expand the circle of peace around us.”
A White House official said Trump would discuss the conflict in Iran, as well as tensions between Israel and Lebanon, whose president Trump hosted last week.
The official said they will also discuss the Abraham Accords, the series of agreements Trump brokered to normalize diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.
‘BIBI’S BEEN GREAT,’ TRUMP SAYS
Trump wants to add Saudi Arabia to the accords and conditioned a civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the kingdom last week on Riyadh signing up. Riyadh has so far rejected joining the accords without a path toward Palestinian statehood.
“Bibi’s been great,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he flew to Michigan on Monday, using the Israeli leader’s nickname. “He was a wartime prime minister. We did very well together.”
Zelenskiy and Trump clashed repeatedly in the early months of Trump’s second term, but relations between the two have improved in recent months as Ukraine has had greater success in the war, including with increased attacks on Russia’s oil industry.
Zelenskiy is expected to have a short private meeting with Trump at the White House, likely in the absence of reporters, said a source familiar with the plans.A Ukrainian source said Patriot missile interceptors are top priority. “We’re experiencing strikes every day so we need Trump’s and his team’s ‘okay’ to let us buy missiles for Patriots. It’s a top priority to save lives,” the source said.
Zelenskiy is expected to press Trump for urgently needed air defense capabilities and completing a drone deal with the United States. The two leaders will also likely discuss Trump’s promise at the NATO summit to grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptors.
Zelenskiy spoke last week with U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about the prospects for renewed peace talks with Russia and said that Ukrainian and U.S. officials could meet in the United States in the coming days.
“With President Zelenskiy, President Trump will discuss the ongoing peace process between Russia and Ukraine. Now is the time to end the war,” the White House official said.
After the White House meeting, Zelenskiy is expected to go to the U.S. Capitol for a meeting with all 100 senators.
His visit comes as a letter sent to lawmakers from the Pentagon showed the Trump administration has told Congress it will not finish spending $400 million authorized for aid to Ukraine until fiscal year 2029, even as Kyiv runs critically low on weapons it needs to fend off Russian missile attacks.
Democrats and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans have criticized the Pentagon for sitting on aid for Kyiv that members of both parties backed last year.
(Reporting By Steve Holland, additional reporting by Erin Banco, Andrea Shalal, Dan Flynn, Patricia Zengerle and Anna Pruchnicka; editing by Ross Colvin, Howard Goller, Caitlin Webber and Michael Perry)
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