Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cancelled a planned trip to the US next week, his office announced on Thursday.
The purpose of the trip was to attend the funeral of US senator Lindsey Graham after his sudden death this week.
However, the service has now been postponed until the end of the month.
On Wednesday reports indicated that the Israeli leader would be travelling to the US on Saturday, a senior official told Reuters.
The official told the outlet that Netanyahu intended to meet President Donald Trump but that it had not been confirmed that he would.
Graham, a 71-year-old Republican and committed ally to Israel, died from a “brief and sudden illness”on Sunday.
His death was a result of an aortic rupture caused by hardened arteries, the Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia concluded in a preliminary report on Sunday, released by his office.
Netanyahu and the senator enjoyed a close relationship, with the Israeli leader saying upon his death: “Israel has lost one of its greatest friends. America has lost a great patriot. I have lost a beloved friend.”
It follows an Axios report claiming that Trump had had told Netanyahu to redeploy troops from southern Lebanon and Syria, saying: “They don’t want you there.”
“The Prime Minister, on his part, raised the need for security zones along Israel's borders,” the prime minister’s office said in response.
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Trump was asked directly if he wanted Israeli troops to withdraw from southern Lebanon.
“Well, redeploy is another word because we’re getting along very well with Lebanon. Israel’s dealing with them very nicely. First time in many, many years. Lebanon has just been beaten up so badly and they’ve got Hezbollah over there.
“Southern Syria and from parts of Lebanon, yeah, it would be good to get out I think and I think you might see things get a little bit calmer because we have to focus our energy.”
He also suggested that the Syrian president would do a better job of handling Hezbollah saying: “He would go in and take care of Hezbollah and he’d do it in a different way. He wouldn’t knock down buildings. I hated to see buildings knocked down.”
Asked if he believed Al-Sharaa would be more precise than the Israelis he said: “I think he’d be more precise, yeah, and I can tell you I know he’d like to do it.” He added he was “thinking about” giving the leader the green light.
Previous reports have suggested that Trump has had angry discussions with his Israeli ally Netanyahu while asking him to stop military action in Lebanon. He is alleged to have called him “f***ing crazy” in the discussions.
However, Trump has repeatedly insisted that relations between the two countries remains strong.
