(JNS) US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone on Thursday, amid renewed US-Iran tensions and the potential collapse of talks on a nuclear deal.
Netanyahu’s office said that the call was part of “continuous contact” between the two and that “continued coordination between the countries in various sectors was established.”
Trump updated Netanyahu “on American moves in the Gulf,” according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Netanyahu’s office stated that he talked with Trump about “the severity” of anti-Israel comments that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Turkey, made recently and about the “need for security zones along Israel’s borders.”
Trump met recently with Erdoğan in Ankara, and the White House released photos of the two shaking hands and smiling. In one photo, Erdoğan takes Trump’s arm.
Hakan Fidan, foreign minister of Turkey, told the Turkish CNN affiliate on July 2 that the Jewish state has “become a burden that humanity can no longer bear” and that Israel is representative of “humanity’s common problems.”
Erdoğan previously expressed similar sentiments but has remained a strong ally of Trump’s. The US president said this week that he is considering asking Congress to approve selling F-35 fighter jets to Ankara.
That announcement has drawn concern from Netanyahu and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. JNS has reported that experts are divided on whether Turkey is a “NATO member in name only” or a closer ally than ever.
Trump and Netanyahu could meet in Washington next week reportedly, although Washington and Tehran trading strikes might change those plans.
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