Netanyahu will meet with presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Sunday, an Israeli official said. However, neither Trump nor Clinton has visited in the current election cycle. He is expected to head back to Israel in the evening.
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Netanyahu is in the United States, where he met with President Barack Obama and addressed the U.N. General Assembly this week.
The one-on-one discussions will follow what was likely Netanyahu’s final meeting with Obama last week, capping what has been a sometimes rocky relationship between the leaders of the two allies.
European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, left, United Nations General Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, second from left, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, second from right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pose for photographers before a meeting of the Middle East quartet at U.N. headquarters, Friday, Sept. 23, 2016.
The meetings with the rival nominees, who are running neck-and-neck according to recent polls, comes one day before the two are set to lock horns in the first televised presidential debate of the campaign, to be held at New York’s Hofstra University.
“The meeting was scheduled following a phone conversation between Trump’s staff and the staff of the Prime Minister’s office”, Netanyahu’s office reported.
Last December, Trump was scheduled to visit Israel and meet with Netanyahu but the Republican candidate eventually canceled his trip, amongst others due to the statement of condemnation issued by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office after Trump said that Muslims should not be allowed to enter the United States.
Netanyahu has so far avoided meeting with either candidate, having been accused in 2012 of interfering in U.S. politics by hosting Republican nominee Mitt Romney in Jerusalem just three months before the vote but reports indicate the meetings materialized with a phone call between Trump’s aides and Netanyahu’s advisers.
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A senior Israeli official told Israeli journalists on Wednesday that Netanyahu was nevertheless “open” to meeting the candidates.
