Israeli officials feel sidelined by the emerging US-Iran peace deal and are furious with what they believe amounts to a “catastrophe” that fails the objectives set prior to the war, according to reports by the Israeli outlet Ynet.
According to the reported terms, the agreement would reopen the Strait of Hormuz without a toll regime, lift the American naval blockade on Iranian ports, ease sanctions on Tehran, and defer nuclear talks to later. While US President Donald Trump said the agreement would be signed on Sunday, Iranian officials said it would happen later.
Tehran has also insisted that the deal end the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have occupied a significant chunk of territory. At the same time, whereas US officials seek an agreement that underlines “broad regional peace” – including in Lebanon – they insist that Israel reserves its right to self-defense.
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However, Ynet, citing multiple senior Israeli officials, reported on Saturday that West Jerusalem believes that the agreement taking shape falls short on every major Israeli redline: nuclear dismantlement, missile limits, and the rollback of Iran’s regional allies. Tehran has repeatedly said it does not seek nuclear weapons and uses its atomic capabilities for peaceful purposes only.
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“Trump screwed us,” one Israeli official told Ynet. A second official called the deal “very bad.” “From our perspective, it is a catastrophe, because it does not meet any of the principles we spoke about when the war began,” he said.
A third official warned the deal would be widely interpreted as a setback for America. “The regional working assumption is that it was signed under Iranian pressure and an American climbdown, not the other way around,” the official said, adding that the agreement “will be considered a failure,” at least in the short term.
Publicly, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “expressed his appreciation” for President Trump’s commitment that the deal would “include the removal of enriched material” from Iran while stressing that his country is not a party to the agreement.
Behind the scenes, however, a different picture emerges, with Trump yelling at Netanyahu in early June and calling him “f**king crazy” over Israelʼs strikes in Lebanon, according to Axios. The outlet also claimed that Trump threatened to withdraw support for Israel if it restarts the war with Iran. Publicly, Trump also stressed that Netanyahu has no other choice but to accept a US-Iran deal.
The reported tensions between the two leaders come as Trump has received flak for what his critics describe as a successful Israeli ploy to draw the US into war with Iran. The military campaign drew the ire of some of Trump’s staunchest supporters, including conservative journalist Tucker Carlson, who called it the “single biggest mistake” of Trump’s presidency.
