Trump’s letter to Netanyahu, dated January 28, invites the prime minister to visit next week week.
US President Donald Trump has invited the Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be the first foreign official to visit the White House.
The invitation comes as Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, traveled to the region.
The Times of Israel reported, citing the state KAN broadcaster, that Witkoff met Saudi and Palestinian officials in Riyadh on Wednesday.
השיירה של סטיב וויטקוף יצאה מעזה@shemeshmicha pic.twitter.com/s2cPV4fYx6
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 29, 2025
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The paper said that Witkoff visited the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning adding that was to meet Israeli officials later.
‘Shared Adversaries’
Trump’s letter to Netanyahu, dated January 28, invites the prime minister to visit “next week week” to discuss “how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”
TRUMPS FORMAL INVITATION TO NETANYAHU
Trump “looks forward to discussing how WE can bring peace to Israel and its neighbours and efforts to counter OUR shared adversaries.”
He concludes, “It will be my honour to host you as my FIRST foreign leader during my second term.” pic.twitter.com/5WON2opNAj
— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) January 29, 2025
“It will be my honor to host you as my first foreign leader during my second term,” the letter added.
The ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip. Their alleged war crimes reportedly include using starvation as a weapon of war and committing acts such as murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
Trump’s Gaza Remarks Slammed
Last week, Trump came under fire for suggesting that Jordan and Egypt accept Palestinians from Gaza in order to “clean out” the enclave.
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said any talk about an “alternative homeland” for Palestinians “is unacceptable.”
“We do not accept it, we have not accepted it, and we will continue to confront it with all our capabilities,” Safadi told the Jordanian parliament on Monday.
Quoting King Abdullah II, Safadi said: “Jordan is for Jordanians, Palestine is for Palestinians, and the solution to the Palestinian issue is on Palestinian soil.”
‘Palestine is for Palestinians’ – Jordan Rejects Trump’s Call to Resettle Gaza Population
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday that “I’d like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people,” according to AFP.
He continued: “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, we just clean out that whole thing.”
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also dismissed any “depopulation” of Gaza. In a statement on Sunday, it “rejected any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether by settlement or annexation of land, or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, or encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term.”
Hamas’s Rejection
Hamas said the Palestinian people “categorically reject any plans to displace or expel them from their land.”
“We call on the US administration to abandon such proposals that align with Israeli schemes and conflict with the rights and free will of our people,” the movement said in a statement on Sunday.
Displaced Palestinians Return to Northern Gaza as Hamas Outlines Post-War Plans
Since Monday, around one million displaced Palestinians have been making the journey back home to the north of the besieged enclave, under a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 47,417 Palestinians have been killed, and 111,571 wounded in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza which began on October 7, 2023.
The toll is expected to rise further, with at least 11,000 people still unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes across Gaza.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
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