Key events
Senate majority leader John Thune told reporters before heading to the White House that he believes “there will be multiple opportunities to vote on keeping the government open” if they can’t do so tomorrow.
“I would expect additional opportunities,” he said.
Hamas official says group has not received written Trump’s Gaza peace plan
Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi has reiterated that the group has not yet received Donald Trump’s written Gaza peace plan.
He gave the remarks in an interview with Al Jazeera Mubasher TV shortly after Trump’s joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu in which the Israeli prime minister expressed support for the US plan but vowed to “finish the job” if Hamas rejected it.
“I’m going to the White House. They have felt the heat, and so we have finally… we’ve finally gotten our meeting. We hope they’re serious about getting something real done on health care,” Chuck Schumer told reporters as he left for the White House.
It’s straight to another high-stakes meeting for Donald Trump, with congressional leaders en route to the White House for crunch talks ahead of tomorrow night’s deadline for avoiding a government shutdown.
He is due to meet with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, House speaker Mike Johnson, and Senate majority leader John Thune.
At the end of his “press conference” with Netanyahu just now, the president said:
I’m meeting with, as you know, a couple of Democrats in a little while about the country, keeping our country open. They’re going to have to do some things because their ideas are not very good ones, they’re very bad for our country, so we’ll see how that works out.
Trump and Netanyahu do not take questions during press conference
Trump and Netanyahu then decide not to take questions from reporters, despite this being billed as a press conference.
“I think while we wait for these documents to be signed and get everybody in line, I think maybe it’s not really appropriate to take questions,” Trump says.
He asks Netanyahu what he thinks and whether he’d like to take questions from a “friendly” Israeli reporter or two, to which the PM says: “That’s a very, very tough proposition, but I would think, Mr President, that I would go by your instinct.”
As reporters stand up and yell questions anyway the two men shake hands and scarper.
Netanyahu says he told the Qatari PM that “Israel was targeting terrorists, it wasn’t targeting Qatar, and of course we regretted the loss of the Qatari citizen who wasn’t our target”.
Trump’s plan provides “a realistic path for Gaza”, Netanyahu says.
The Palestinian Authority cannot have any role in Gaza without undergoing a “radical” transformation, Netanyahu says.
Netanyahu says Gaza will have a “peaceful civilian administration”.
Hamas will be disarmed, Gaza will be demilitarized, and Israel will withdraw linked to the extent of disarmament of Hamas, he adds.
Netanyahu says Israel will ‘finish the job’ if Hamas rejects deal
“This can be done the easy way or the hard way,” Netanyahu says.
“If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr President, or if they supposedly accepted and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself,” he adds.
Netanyahu says he ‘supports’ Trump’s Gaza plan
“I support your plan to end the war in Gaza,” he tells Trump, “which achieves our war aims.”
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