Hegseth meets Netanyahu on unannounced Israel visit
Hegseth has travelled to Israel to meet Netanyahu before a closely contested election, Axios reported, citing sources.
United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during an undisclosed visit to Israel.
Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister, confirmed to the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that Netanyahu had met Hegseth at the Uvda air force base in Israel’s southern Negev desert region the day before. The unannounced visit was first reported by Axios.
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Spielman said the two discussed “the threats in the region” and the US-Israel partnership in dealing both offensively and defensively with those threats.
Hegseth also thanked Israel for hosting US forces, which Spielman said numbered in the thousands, and discussed President Donald Trump’s support for the prime minister, who is seeking re-election next week.
“There’s a deep personal relationship here that was at the core of this discussion”, Spielman said.
Hegseth wrote on a social media post that he had visited US service members in the Central Command area of responsibility, which covers the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia.
A spokesman for the US Department of Defense had told Al Jazeera earlier that it “declines to comment” on reports of the visit.
Reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said Hegseth’s visit came shortly after Trump’s public endorsement of Netanyahu in Israel’s October 27 election.
The Trump administration is backing Netanyahu “as Israel’s protector and as a leader who can work with the US on various issues such as regime change in Iran”, said Odeh.
In a statement released by his office on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he had spoken with Trump on Sunday. “We are committed to completing the elimination of the Iranian regime,” said Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes in Gaza. “I have discussed this with Trump many times, including the day before yesterday.”
On Sunday, Trump had praised the prime minister for being an ally in the war the US and Israel launched against Iran in late February. Writing on social media, Trump said Netanyahu had his “Complete and Total Endorsement”.
Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist coalition is projected to lose its governing majority, although the opposition may also struggle to form a government, opinion polls suggest.
US Vice President JD Vance, however, declined to endorse Netanyahu in an interview on Monday, saying he was not getting involved in Israeli elections.
“I endorse American candidates, and that’s where I’m focused on is the midterms,” Vance, who travelled to Budapest and endorsed Viktor Orban in Hungarian elections earlier this year, said in an interview with digital media outlet 2WAY.
“I’m not anti-endorsing him, but I’m not pro-endorsing him; I’m not getting involved in Israeli elections,” Vance said.
Responding to an Al Jazeera question about discussions between Trump and Netanyahu on alleged plans to attack Iran, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly repeated the president’s claim that “Iran is in very bad condition” economically and militarily but also reiterated that the US “will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections“.
