After call with Sissi, Netanyahu touts international popularity

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he spoke with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi late last week.

He says it was “an important call” for both countries, without elaborating.

The prime minister also says he was invited this morning to visit Tokyo by the end of the year in a meeting with a high-ranking Japanese official.

The prime minister is also touting the “very warm” letter he received from US President Donald Trump on Sunday thanking him for backing the US’s “fix it or nix it” policy on the Iran deal. This was the position I advanced in the US Congress and with US officials over the past two years, he says. “It likely had some influence,” he says of his efforts.

“Countries are standing in line to improve their ties with us,” Netanyahu says of Israel’s international standing at a special plenum session, noting his upcoming trip to India, “warm” correspondence from the Chinese leader, and improved ties with moderate Arab states on which he cannot elaborate.

There is “no international isolation, there is an international renaissance,” he says.

— Marissa Newman