PALM BEACH, Florida: US President Donald Trump repeated his call for Hamas to disarm on Monday before heading into a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and suggested that he would be open to supporting another Israeli attack on Iran.
Before talks at his Mar-a-Lago estate on breaking the Gaza ceasefire deadlock and addressing Israeli concerns over Iran and Hezbollah, Trump told reporters he hoped Israel could work with Syria despite repeated Israeli incursions across Syria’s border.
The US president said he would support another rapid Israeli attack on Tehran if Iran keeps developing its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs. He added that he wanted to move to the second phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas as soon as possible, but that “there has to be a disarming of Hamas.”
While Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire deal in October, alleged violations have been frequent, and little apparent progress has been made on longer-term goals.
Netanyahu said this month that Trump had invited him for the talks, which were ongoing as of the mid-afternoon, as Washington pushes to establish transitional governance and an international security force for the Palestinian enclave amid Israeli reluctance to move forward.
