Netanyahu Heads to Washington as Iran, Saudis and Omanis Talk Over the Strait of Hormuz
Two leaders under pressure at home meet as the region tests whether a fragile calm around Iran can hold
By Solomon "Customs" Bridges
The meeting has been building for weeks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to sit down with President Trump for their first face-to-face encounter since the war with Iran began, according to NPR News. Both men arrive carrying baggage.
Netanyahu is up for reelection at home, weakened in part by a relationship with the White House that has grown strained since the fighting started. Trump, for his part, faces pressure of his own — an American public tired of a conflict that has dragged on longer than promised, and no easy exit in sight, NPR reports.
The talks come as a separate, quieter diplomatic track plays out in the Gulf. Iran's foreign ministry has been holding calls with Saudi Arabia and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil passes, CNBC reported. Trump himself has called the exchanges "good talks," though the network offered no further detail on what, if anything, the three governments agreed to.
Why any of this matters beyond the region is simple arithmetic. A tanker cannot get oil from the Gulf to a refinery in New Jersey or Rotterdam without passing through Hormuz. When Tehran talks to Riyadh and Muscat about that strait, insurance rates on oil shipments move, and eventually so does the price at the pump. The Netanyahu-Trump meeting will be read by markets and capitals alike for signs of whether Washington is leaning toward a wider settlement — or bracing for the war's next chapter.
[Editor's note: Details of the Netanyahu-Trump meeting's agenda and the substance of the Hormuz calls were not available in the reporting reviewed for this article; both stories should be followed as they develop.]
— Compiled from reporting by NPR News and CNBC.
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