Netanyahu unsettled by Trump-Iran talks but Israel maintains military option
Despite President Donald Trump’s announcement of direct talks with Iran, sources describe the chances of a deal as "slim" and predict a tense summer ahead.
TEL AVIV — Exactly seven years after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gleefully praised US President Donald Trump for pulling the United States out of the nuclear deal with Iran, he was forced on Monday to sit by his side and hear the second-term president announce direct high-level talks with Iran.
This seems to have been the real reason Trump summoned Netanyahu to Washington for an unscheduled meeting — to inform him (and the world) of the negotiations to strike a new deal with Iran curbing its nuclear program.
Judging by Israeli concerns over expected indirect US talks with Iran, announced a week ago, this was hardly what Netanyahu wanted to hear, especially with cameras, lights and microphones directed at him in the Oval Office. Still, surely mindful of the humiliation at Trump’s hands suffered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he sat on the same chair some six weeks ago, Netanyahu simply said he and Trump share the same goal of ensuring Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu received the summons during a trilateral call with Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last week, with whom he was meeting in Budapest. But instead of going on to spend a leisurely weekend in the Hungarian capital as planned, Netanyahu spent the next 48 hours trying to understand the reason for the urgent Washington meeting. His greatest concern, according to aides, was that Trump would publicly impose on Israel acceptance of a ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Refusing to go along could result in public embarrassment; agreement to do so could result in the collapse of his government by his hard-line partners who oppose any concessions to Hamas.
