Gallant meets State Dept.’s Leaf; protesters outside his NYC hotel

Defense Minister Gallant meets with US State Department Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf in New York City, the Defense Ministry says.

Gallant will meet later today with the White House’s coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, Brett McGurk.

This morning Gallant toured the Defense Ministry mission and held a briefing on its work with the US Defense Department, his office says.

A crowd of protesters rallies outside Gallant’s hotel in Manhattan as he meets with Leaf. The Israeli activists have hounded Gallant and other ministers in the region throughout the year, leading to embarrassing incidents for ministers visiting New York, including Nir Barkat and Amichai Chikli, and MK Simcha Rothman.

Gallant has not made any public appearances since arriving in the US on Thursday, and is not available to the press at any point during the trip. He held a closed-door meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters yesterday.