Netanyahu gambles close Trump ties with Iran strikes

TEL AVIV

Israel’s latest strikes on Iran have not only ignited fears of a full-fledged resurgence of war, they run the risk of damaging the close ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Despite Trump’s seeming aversion to the prospect of the war reigniting, both Israel and Iran have leaned into the volatile adversity that has long threatened the ceasefire, launching their first exchange since it began in April.

Following Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, Iran responded with a barrage of missiles towards Israel, where some officials in turn called for a relentless response.

Against the backdrop of U.S. efforts to prevent a retaliation and reports of Trump’s increasing exasperation with Netanyahu, the Israeli premier yet again brandished the “right to self-defense.”

According to Axios, Trump warned Netanyahu that if he went back to war with Iran, he might find himself fighting alone.

“I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon’,” Axios quoted Trump as saying in a phone interview.

Two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the Israeli side of the discussion said the latest call was notably calmer than an earlier exchange in which Trump called Netanyahu “f*cking crazy.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance also said that Washington will continue to seek an agreement with Iran over its nuclear program regardless of whatever position Israel takes.

“Thanks to what’s happened over the last few months, but really over the last year and a half, we’ve created the space necessary where the president believes and I think that he’s right, that we can get the

long-term settlement to Iran’s nuclear deal,” Vance said during an interview with Fox News.

“Now, Israel may like that, they may not like that, but fundamentally, we think this is in the best interest of the United States of America. So we’re going to keep on pursuing it, because that’s what the president of

the United States was elected to do. That’s what we have to do in order to properly serve the American people,” he added.

Meanwhile, Trump said on June 9 that negotiators were in the “final throes” of talks for a peace deal in the Middle East.

Iran and Israel “were going back and forth and now they both agreed through me to stop and we’re in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal,” the US leader told reporters on his return from an NBA Finals game.

Asked whether it would be matter of days or weeks, he said it would take “two or three days.”