Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Washington on Monday for a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House the following day, his office confirmed on Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is also scheduled to hold talks with Trump on Tuesday, a White House official said. Both leaders plan to attend the memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, a vocal advocate for robust US support of Israel and Ukraine who died earlier this month. The overlapping visits place the escalating US-Iran war and the frozen conflict in Ukraine atop a suddenly crowded diplomatic agenda.

According to Israeli defence officials speaking to Kan TV News, Netanyahu intends to secure Trump’s consent for expanded military strikes against Iran, particularly targeting energy infrastructure that Israel has not struck in previous phases of the war. The Israeli military, these sources say, is prepared to act immediately if greenlit. Netanyahu’s push comes as his government faces sustained pressure from far-right coalition partners to continue offensive operations without depending on US backing. Yet the alliance has frayed: US President Trump has openly berated Netanyahu over Israel’s persistent campaign in Lebanon, which American negotiators viewed as undermining a now-collapsed effort to secure a ceasefire and memorandum of understanding with Tehran. White House officials, as cited by Axios, say Trump told the prime minister he was “f---ing crazy” and jeopardising broader US diplomatic objectives. Netanyahu’s office has since described such exchanges as “tactical disagreements” and insists that both leaders remain aligned on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.

Viewed from Kyiv, the Washington trip offers Zelensky a chance to inject momentum into stalled peace negotiations with Russia. Ukrainian and US officials have been discussing a proposal for a limited aerial ceasefire, which they hope to present to Moscow, according to a source familiar with the talks. The Ukrainian leadership believes that sustained drone and missile strikes on Russian oil facilities have placed enough strain on the Kremlin’s war economy to make President Vladimir Putin more amenable to a partial truce. Past ceasefire offers, however, were flatly rejected, and no public signal has emerged from Moscow indicating a change in posture. Zelensky’s discussions with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner earlier in the week centred on preparing for a possible Ukrainian-American meeting in the coming days to hammer out the details.

Regional dynamics add further complexity. Iran has responded to the latest round of US airstrikes by targeting American military assets in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, and its foreign minister has denounced a Trump proposal to use frozen Iranian funds to compensate shipping firms as ‘incendiary’. Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, returning from his own Washington visit, has pressed for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanese territory, calling it an “urgent necessity” under the trilateral framework signed in June — an agreement that has since been tested by continued Israeli operations. With Israeli parliamentary elections set for late October, Netanyahu’s handling of the multi-front conflict will face domestic scrutiny. Back in Washington, the twin summits on Tuesday are expected to yield decisions on whether Israel joins the US-led military campaign against Iran and whether Kyiv gets a fresh diplomatic opening with Moscow.