Donald Trump moves to warm up Israel relations

Donald Trump has moved quickly to recast the US’s relationship with Israel and the Middle East.

Donald Trump, flanked by Vice-President Mike Pence, yesterday waves the welcome letter by Barack Obama.

Donald Trump has moved quickly to recast America’s relationship with Israel and the Middle East, promising “unprecedented commitment” to Israel’s security and pledging to deal with the threat posed by Iran.

On his second full day as President, Mr Trump turned his attention to the world, speaking with his neighbouring leaders in Mexico and Canada and pointedly inviting Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Washington within weeks. Mr Trump spoke with Mr Netanyahu and made it clear he was ­determined to repair relations with Israel and bury its legacy of poor relations with the Obama Administration.

The two leaders discussed what the White House described as “the threats posed by Iran”, adding to speculation the new President may carry out his promise to renegotiate the ­nuclear agreement with Tehran, which he had described on the campaign trail as “a really, really bad deal”.

“The President and the Prime Minister agreed to continue to closely consult on a range of ­regional issues, including addressing the threats posed by Iran,” the White House said.

Before the call, Mr Netanyahu tweeted: “Stopping the Iranian threat, and the threat reflected in the bad nuclear agreement with Iran, continues to be a supreme goal of Israel.”

But Mr Trump’s pick for Defence Secretary, former General James Mattis, has said the US should respect the nuclear agreement — where Iran has curbed its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions — even though it was a bad deal.

“I think this is an imperfect arms control agreement — it’s not a friendship treaty,” General Mattis said. “But when America gives her word, we have to live up to it and work with our allies.”

Iran says it is impossible for the US to withdraw from the deal because it was a multilateral agreement involving other countries.

In a strong pledge for America’s relationship with Israel, Mr Trump told Mr Netanyahu he would adopt an “unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security”.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer also confirmed the new President’s intent to pursue his plan to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move that would cause uproar in the Arab world because it would effectively challenge its claim to the holy city.

“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” Spicer said. Previous presidents have baulked at moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, which Israel calls its capital, ­because Palestinians lay claim to the city as part of an eventual state.

Any decision to move the US embassy would trigger strong protests from America’s closest Arab allies in the region, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Mr Trump described his conversation with Mr Netanyahu as “very warm”, a sharp contrast to the Prime Minister’s chilly relationship with Mr Obama who infuriated Israel early this month by declining to veto a UN Security Council resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement building.

Israel hopes Mr Trump will be less critical of moves to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In disputed East Jerusalem, 560 new homes for Israeli settlers have now been approved after being delayed until Mr Trump came to power, the Jerusalem deputy mayor said.

“I was told to wait until Trump takes office because he has no problem with building in Jerusalem,” Meir Turgeman told Israeli army radio about land claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians.

Mr Trump told Mr Netanyahu that only Israel and the Palestinians could negotiate peace but that the US would help.

Otherwise, Mr Trump spent a low-key day in the White House, except for several tweets about the large national protests against him the previous day. “Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn’t these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly,” Mr Trump tweeted.

He said he believed his presidency and administration “would prove worthy of this moment in history”.

“This is not about party, this is not about ideology. This is about country. It’s about serving the American people,” he said.

Earlier Mr Trump’s counsellor, Kellyanne Conway, caused a storm on social media when she described as valid, “alternative facts” the claims put out by the White House about the size of Mr Trump’s inauguration crowd.

In his first days, the President and his staff have been disproportionately engaged in a war with the media over the size of the inauguration crowd, with the White House accusing the media of dishonestly playing down the size of the crowd to hurt Mr Trump’s reputation.