Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been formally invited to US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month, a senior aide to the premier told The Times of Israel on Thursday, putting the kibosh on a trip to Washington for the ceremony.
Israeli officials had said in recent weeks that Netanyahu was expected to attend the January 20 swearing-in and insisted that he was still planning on doing so even after undergoing prostate removal surgery late last month.
But on Thursday, an aide said that he would not be in the audience, barring any last-minute changes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been formally invited to US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month, a senior aide to the premier told The Times of Israel on Thursday, putting the kibosh on a trip to Washington for the ceremony.
Israeli officials had said in recent weeks that Netanyahu was expected to attend the January 20 swearing-in and insisted that he was still planning on doing so even after undergoing prostate removal surgery late last month.
But on Thursday, an aide said that he would not be in the audience, barring any last-minute changes.
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The aide said Netanyahu had not received an official invitation, though it was unclear if he had been informally asked to attend.
Beyond the premier’s medical troubles, the trip, should he have taken it, would have been made slightly more fraught by an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in November for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
While the US has said that it will not execute the warrant against the prime minister or his former defense minister Yoav Gallant, they could still be at risk of arrest while traveling should they need to make an emergency landing en route.
Foreign leaders generally do not attend US presidential inaugurations and Netanyahu did not attend Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017.
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