Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Lisbon on Wednesday for a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu will leave on Wednesday, and return the next day.
The focus of the meeting is expected to be Iran, though other regional issues – including the possible annexation of the Jordan Valley and a defense pact between the US and Israel – are expected to be raised as well. Netanyahu spoke by phone about all three issues with US President Donald Trump on Sunday.
Pompeo is scheduled to arrive from Morocco, where the greater normalization of ties with Israel was among the issues he was expected to speak about with King Mohammed VI. Pompeo is the highest-level US official to visit Morocco since Trump’s election in 2016.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Netanyahu was planning to travel to London to meet Pompeo and other leaders on the sidelines of the NATO meeting taking place there. The Prime Minister’s Office, however, never officially announced that trip. There were reports, nevertheless, that Netanyahu was having problems setting up meetings with some of the top European leaders.
Netanyahu and Pompeo last met in Jerusalem in October. This will be their first meeting since Pompeo’s dramatic announcement last month that the United States does not view Israel’s communities in Judea and Samaria as illegal.