Differences of opinion about Iran, Gaza, who strain the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu

Washington – When President Donald Trump took up his office in January, he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voted closely with the approach to the most urgent problems in their relationship: war in the Gaza and the aggression of Iran.

Trump raised a stop in which the bidges had sent large bombs to Israel. He encouraged the Israeli military operations to end the job against Hamas in Gaza. He agreed to confront the Iran and his proxy groups in the region.

But in the past few weeks, the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu has become tense, since the two leaders are increasingly about a strategy for coping with these challenges, since according to two US officials, two diplomats from the Middle East and two other people with knowledge about the knowledge, and Iran weakened.

Where Netanyahu sees an opportunity to finally take out the nuclear institutions of Iran, Trump sees the opportunity to eliminate the risk of Iran, to acquire a nuclear weapon by completing a deal. When Israel strikes a new military offensive Gaza, Trump pushes for an armistice and wants to implement his post -war plan to convert the area into a “rivet of the Middle East”. And after Trump hired the US military campaign against the Iranian-supported Houthi Militant Group, a shocked Netanyahu said that Israel would then defend himself.

The recent differences between the two managers to key strategies and positions have brought Trump's relationship to one of the closest allies in America on a crossroads. How you navigate your future disagreements will influence the result of some of the core components of the President's foreign policy agenda.

In the past week alone, Trump brought twice to public comments, the Netanyahu, the two US officials, the two diplomats of the Middle East and two other people with knowledge of the tensions that extinguished.

Netanyahu was particularly upset when Trump said on Wednesday that he did not have to decide whether the Iran Uranium could enrich his administration as part of a new nuclear agreement, said the two US officials. A top consultant by Netanyahu, Ron Dermer, sent this message to Trump's Messenger of the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, during a meeting in the White House on Thursday, according to one of the US officials.

In his part, Trump was of Netanyahu's decision to start a new military offensive in Gaza, which the President sees as in contradiction to his plan for reconstruction, according to one of the US officials and one of the people familiar with the tensions between the two leaders.

In private, Trump said that the new Israeli offensive in Gaza was a waste because, according to these two sources, it makes it more difficult to rebuild.

The United States is currently urging Israel and Hamas to agree with a ceasefire in Gaza that Dermmer was supposed to discuss with Witkoff during his visit to the White House this week, according to the diplomats of the Middle East and a high -ranking civil servant of the Administration of the Trump administration.

But Trump's approach to Iran was the biggest point of dispute for Netanyahu.

The Israeli guide has been frustrated for weeks, with Trump's refusal to support military strikes about the nuclear institutions of Iran, and his decision to try to achieve a deal that aims to block Tehran, to acquire a nuclear weapon, according to the two US officials, the two nearby diplomats and two other people with knowledge of the tensions.

“They are worried about every deal,” said one of the US officials about the Israelis.

Israel has made it clear to the United States that Trump does not want to cut a nuclear agreement that leaves Iran with any functions of uranium enrichment, said the US officials and diplomats in the Middle East. Trump has expressed an openness to Iran to maintain a civilian nuclear program.

“We have not yet made this decision,” said Trump on Wednesday when we were asked whether the US position was that Iran can have an uranium -enrichment program for civilian nuclear purposes.

“Israel had no better friend in his story as President Trump,” said James Hewitt, spokesman for the National Security Council, in a statement that answered this story. “We continue to work closely with our allied Israel to ensure that the remaining hostages are freed in Gaza. Iran never receives a nuclear weapon and to strengthen regional security in the Middle East. As he has repeatedly stated in his first and second conditions, the president is obliged to ensure that Iran never receives a nuclear weapon.”

A third US official said that the President's team regularly communicated with Israeli officials about the status of negotiations with Iran, provided updates and coordinated elements of a potential deal.

Netanyahus office did not answer a request for comments.

“Trump has his own agenda”

Netanyahu was blindly and angry with Trump's announcement last week that Trump's announcement that the United States stopped its military campaign against the Iranian Houthis in Yemen, after the Houthis had agreed to do without US ships in the Red Sea, such as one of the American officials and the two diplomats in the Middle East.

The Houthis had just attacked Israel with a rocket that met near Ben Gurion, the main airport of Israel.

When Netanyahu visited the White House for the second time since he took office, he hoped that the President would promise the US Air Support for a possible Israeli operation against the nuclear institutions of Iran, according to the two diplomats of the Middle East. The Israeli guide was surprised when the President announced that he would agree to lead talks with Tehran, the diplomat said.

Netanyahu said privately that he thinks Trump's negotiations with Iran are a waste of time because Tehran will never hold his end of a deal, according to the two US officials. Israel has argued that Iran is so weakened by economic sanctions and the deterioration of its deputies in the region that an ideal moment is now to take out its nuclear facilities, and it is concerned that the window concludes while the US negotiations, said the officials.

In addition, the Israeli military storms crippled the Iranian strategic air defense in October, which means that manned airplanes that carry out new strikes are not so vulnerable to the depressions. But the Iranians rebuild their air defense.

The Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham said this week that the only acceptable Iran deal that keeps Tehran completely from maintaining uranium enrichment. They also asked Trump to present an Iranian nuclear deal for ratification to the Senate, which requires a two-thirds majority.

When asked about the comments of Cotton and Graham, a fourth US official said that Witkoff was in “constant contact” with Graham about the Iranian negotiations last week and that cotton was informed about them.

The nuclear agreement, which was not ratified by President Barack Obama in Iran -Nuclear Agreement in 2015 by the Senate, which made it possible for Trump to simply withdraw the United States from the agreement during his first term.

“I think what you see is the Israelis who realizes that you welcomed President Trump's choice so much that you would really give you an empty check to follow the agenda you wanted. Trump has his own agenda,” said Frank Lowenstein, a former near-eastern sentence under the Obama administration, said during a hunting-organized hunting organization, said during a hunting-organized hunting. who organized itself as a pro-Israel preliminary and single-organization as a pro-Israel and pro-Israel-Asrael and as pro-Israel.

Although Trump's diplomacy with Iran and the USA are “Anathema” for Netanyahu with the Houthi's “Anathema”, the prime minister does not have the political leverage in Washington or Israel in order to occur a direct confrontation with Trump, which is popular with Netanyahus base in Netanyahu, said Ilan Goldenberg, who in the official official in bids and office as a senior -Official -Adam administrator worked.

Netanyahus “Whole political strategy and survival strategy is based on holding his coalition and its political basis together,” said Goldenberg in the briefing organized by J Street. “And these people love Trump, so he kicks Trump very publicly, which he really can't do.”

The burden in the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu comes because the president is to travel to the Middle East next week. The stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are planned. Trump is currently not planned to visit Israel on this trip, even though he did it during his first term.

Witkoff also planned another round of negotiations with Iran this weekend in Oman.