Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to become the first foreign leader to meet with President Donald Trump during his second term with a trip to the White House next week. A White House official confirmed to NBC News that Trump had extended an invitation to Netanyahu and that he accepted. Netanyahu's office said they agreed to meet Feb. 4. “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries,” Trump wrote in a letter to Netanyahu on Tuesday. Trump had previewed his plans to meet with Netanyahu on Monday telling reporters that Netanyahu would be coming to Washington to meet with him “in the not too distant future.”

President Donald Trump has invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House next week as the first foreign leader to visit in Trump’s second term, Netanhayu and the White House said Tuesday. The announcement came as the United States pressures Israel and Hamas to continue a ceasefire that has paused a devastating 15-month war in Gaza. Talks about the ceasefire’s more difficult second phase, which aims to end the war, begin next Monday. The White House letter shared by Netanyahu’s office, dated Tuesday, said “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”

Major topics are anticipated to be the ongoing implementation of the hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas; the future of Lebanon; the threat of a nuclear Iran; and Trump’s suggestion that Palestinians be encouraged to leave Gaza for other Arab countries, a proposal that was previously taboo but has generated a great deal of interest as well as criticism. Netanyahu and Trump had a good relationship in Trump’s first term, though also, briefly, a rocky one after Netanyahu congratulated President Joe Biden on his apparent win in 2020. The two leaders mended fences in 2024 at Mar-a-Lago.