Welcome back to World Brief, where we\u2019re looking at Israel\u2019s agenda heading into talks at the White House, the uncertain status of U.S.-Iran peace talks, and wildfires spreading across France and Spain.<\/p>\n
What Bibi Wants<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is finally getting his White House meeting. After reportedly angling<\/a> for an invite to Washington for months, the Israeli leader will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday for their first face-to-face meeting since the Iran war began.<\/p>\n Welcome back to World Brief, where we\u2019re looking at Israel\u2019s agenda heading into talks at the White House, the uncertain status of U.S.-Iran peace talks, and wildfires spreading across France and Spain.<\/p>\n What Bibi Wants<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is finally getting his White House meeting. After reportedly angling<\/a> for an invite to Washington for months, the Israeli leader will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday for their first face-to-face meeting since the Iran war began.<\/p>\n \u201cI am embarking on this mission with one clear goal\u2014to ensure the security, strength, and future of our dear state of Israel,\u201d Netanyahu said<\/a> on Monday. But whereas past summits have largely served as opportunities to showcase the two leaders\u2019 shared values, this week\u2019s talks have unusually high stakes<\/a> for both countries.<\/p>\n On Oct. 27, Israeli citizens will vote in parliamentary elections that could prove dire for Netanyahu\u2019s ruling Likud party. Only 33 percent<\/a> of Israelis consider Netanyahu as the best candidate to be prime minister, while 59 percent prefer someone else. To counter low public opinion, Netanyahu is expected to emphasize his close working partnership with Trump and push for a return to all-out war with Iran.<\/p>\n However, Trump may not be on the same page. Unlike Israel, which has characterized the Iran war as essential to tackling an existential threat, Trump has turned his attention to the Strait of Hormuz. Specifically, Trump appears focused on controlling the critical waterway in the hopes that U.S. influence will reinsert stability into global energy markets.<\/p>\n But U.S. citizens aren\u2019t convinced<\/a>. Rising fuel costs and high inflation have made Trump\u2019s war unpopular<\/a> among American voters. With Democrats expected<\/a> to pull ahead in November\u2019s midterm elections, Trump could be persuaded to distance himself from Israel and seek a swift end to the conflict; on Monday, Trump said that he wants to give diplomacy with Tehran another chance. (For more details on that pivot, see below.)<\/p>\n Washington\u2019s recently unveiled nuclear deal<\/a> with Saudi Arabia is also likely to widen the rift between Netanyahu and Trump. According to the White House, the landmark agreement will allow U.S. companies to help Riyadh develop a civilian nuclear program\u2014but only if Saudi Arabia signs the Abraham Accords<\/a>. Israel, as the only nuclear power<\/a> in the Middle East, has long opposed Riyadh\u2019s nuclear ambitions. And Netanyahu has refused to entertain Saudi Arabia\u2019s demand that a condition of normalized relations be the establishment of a path to Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n During Netanyahu\u2019s trip this week, he will also attend funeral services for Sen. Lindsey Graham<\/a>, whom Netanyahu once described as a \u201cgreat friend\u201d and staunch ally of Israel. And on Monday, Netanyahu confirmed<\/a> that he will still visit the United Nations despite New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani calling for his arrest. In 2024, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant<\/a> for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the war in Gaza; however, the United States is not a member<\/a> of the Rome Statute and therefore does not recognize the warrant.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Most Read<\/p>\n The World This Week<\/p>\n Tuesday, July 28: Trump separately hosts Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.<\/p>\n Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin hosts German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.<\/p>\n Keiko Fujimori is sworn in as president of Peru.<\/p>\n South Korean President Lee Jae-myung concludes a three-day trip to Brazil before heading to Chile and Argentina.<\/p>\n U.N. chief Ant\u00f3nio Guterres visits Cyprus.<\/p>\n International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva begins a two-day trip to Argentina.<\/p>\n Wednesday, July 29: Slovakian President Peter Pellegrini concludes a three-day trip to China.<\/p>\n Thursday, July 30: The U.N. Security Council holds its first straw poll on candidates to succeed Guterres.<\/p>\n Saturday, Aug. 1: The Venezuelan government holds talks with the opposition.<\/p>\n What We\u2019re Following<\/p>\n The status of talks? Trump told Axios<\/a> on Monday that he decided to pause strikes on Iran over the weekend to give diplomacy another shot. \u201cWe are in very deep talks with Iran,\u201d the U.S. president said. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both reportedly warned<\/a> Trump against escalating the war on Friday\u2014as did Adm. Brad Cooper<\/a>, the commander of U.S. Central Command.<\/p>\n Despite Brent crude prices dropping<\/a> around 6 percent on Monday in response to the U.S. military\u2019s pause, Trump stressed that if talks \u201cdon\u2019t work out, we will go back to very strong military action.\u201d Negotiations are reportedly focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restarting nuclear talks.<\/p>\n However, Iran does not appear to be in agreement. On Monday, Tehran insisted that its forces still control the critical waterway and said that it was not interested in resuming direct peace negotiations. Iraq, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia all reported drone attacks<\/a> on Monday, with Riyadh blaming Iranian-backed groups in Iraq. Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels<\/a>, another Iranian proxy group, also claimed to have struck transit sites carrying crude to Saudi Arabia\u2019s main Red Sea oil port.<\/p>\n Rampant wildfires. French President Emmanuel Macron convened<\/a> an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday to address dangerous wildfires spreading across southern France. The fires, which began last Wednesday, have already burned nearly 104,000 acres and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes, marking one of France\u2019s largest evacuation efforts in history. Thousands of firefighters, military personnel, and police have deployed to the region to assist rescue efforts and attempt to bring the blaze under control.<\/p>\n The wildfires have also spread into Spain, where they have similarly wreaked havoc<\/a> on local communities. On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez traveled to impacted areas near the city of Val\u00e8ncia to assess the situation. Around 100,000 people across Spain have also been ordered to evacuate their homes or seek shelter.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re experiencing isn\u2019t a succession of isolated events,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s the most painful expression of a climate emergency<\/a> that is making sixth-generation wildfires more ferocious, \u200bheat waves more frequent, and our territory more vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n 12 decisive seats. Polls opened in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Monday for the first phase of its legislative elections<\/a>. But recent political unrest has overshadowed the vote, as protesters with the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) have called for the abolition of 12 seats usually reserved for Kashmiri refugees.<\/p>\n Of the region\u2019s 45 directly elected seats that are up for grabs, 12 constituencies are voted on by roughly 439,000 refugees from India-controlled Kashmir who now live in different parts of Pakistan. Legal experts argue<\/a> that refugee representation has \u201ca firm historical basis\u201d rooted in some of the government\u2019s founding documents, and in June, the region\u2019s Supreme Court ruled that the seats are constitutionally protected.<\/p>\n However, the JAAC believes<\/a> that these seats give nonresidents disproportional influence over local politics and that only people who live in Pakistan-administered Kashmir should be allowed to vote. Its leadership has since boycotted Monday\u2019s election and has called on JAAC supporters to do the same.<\/p>\n Odds and Ends<\/p>\n UNESCO added a host of historic landmarks to its World Heritage List<\/a> on Sunday. Among the sites chosen were Greece\u2019s Mount Olympus, just in time for The Odyssey\u2019s revival<\/a>; five World War II landing beaches in Normandy, France; South Sudan\u2019s Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape, home to one of the world\u2019s largest land mammal migrations; and the ancient Japanese capitals of Asuka and Fujiwara, which cover 19 archaeological sites. Receiving a UNESCO designation gives these sites protected status and honors their historical and cultural significance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome back to World Brief, where we\u2019re looking at Israel\u2019s agenda heading into talks at the White House,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[38,1303,855,34,37,8648,8649,50,51,36],"class_list":["post-225388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-homepage_regional_middle_east_africa","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-paywall-free","tag-post-to-buffer","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-united-states","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116994233003815332","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}