Trump grants Ukraine Patriot missile licences while publicly cooling on Netanyahu's Iran agenda

Donald Trump hosted Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky for separate Oval Office meetings on Tuesday, with the two leaders in Washington to attend the funeral of Republican senator Lindsey Graham. The twin encounters, which the White House described as 'positive and productive', produced one tangible deliverable (a Patriot missile production licence for Kyiv) and one sharp public rift over Iran policy.

A Patriot deal for Kyiv

Zelensky spent just over an hour with Trump, in talks that came as Kyiv and Moscow intensified long-range strikes and US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war remained stalled. The Ukrainian leader pressed for licences to produce Patriot air-defence interceptors and co-produce them with US military companies, a long-running request to counter Russian rocket attacks.

'Today we had good meeting with President Trump. He accepted that he will give us licences, and then I had meeting with representatives of production, very strong military companies of the United States. I hope that we will do co-production,' Zelensky told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a broadcast interview late Tuesday. The meeting also covered ideas to reinvigorate stalled peace talks with Russia.

Last month was the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022, according to the United Nations, as Russia increased its use of difficult-to-intercept ballistic missiles. Since returning to power last year, Trump has ended direct US weapons deliveries to Ukraine, allowing European governments to purchase American arms for Kyiv instead. Washington nevertheless remains a key partner, providing intelligence and Starlink access.

A 'cold shower' for Israel

Netanyahu's session, by contrast, drew a markedly different readout. The Israeli prime minister described it as "one of the best conversations I've had with the president of the United States" and claimed alignment on the common goal of ensuring Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons.

But Israeli media painted a starkly different picture. Yedioth Ahronoth reported a sudden distancing by Trump, while Haaretz editorialised that 'it is too early to bury Netanyahu's influence, but Israel is now seated in the back seat.' The catalyst was a Fox News interview Trump gave hours before the meeting, in which he was asked about Israeli leaks concerning Iranian centrifuge transfers to tunnels beneath Pickaxe Mountain, an underground site south of Natanz that Washington and Israel suspect is nuclear.

I don't need Bibi to tell me that. He is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved. I said: 'Why didn't you just tell it to me, why did you have to announce it to the world?' I know exactly what's going on at Pickaxe. It's not a big problem.

Several commentators interpreted the sequence as a cold shower for Israel, with Trump signalling that Washington remains in control of the calendar and operations. The president had already irritated Netanyahu the previous day by indicating openness to selling F-35 jets to Turkey while aboard Air Force One, saying Erdogan "is a friend of mine, and nobody tells me what we should be selling and not selling".

The Graham funeral backdrop

Both leaders travelled to Washington primarily for the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died unexpectedly this month at age 71. Graham had been a staunch Ukraine supporter, with one of his final acts being a visit to Kyiv to secure cross-party backing for sanctions targeting countries buying Russian oil and gas. Zelensky hailed him as 'a true friend of Ukraine' and watched as the US Senate voted Tuesday to advance that sanctions legislation.

What comes next

Neither meeting produced detailed roadmaps. Zelensky obtained the licence pledge and a reaffirmation of the diplomatic track, though the path to negotiations with Moscow remains blocked. Netanyahu left with a restated common goal on Iran but with Trump publicly minimising the nuclear threat and signalling that the US, not Israel, sets the tempo in the conflict that began with American strikes on 28 February.