Netanyahu admits difficulty influencing Trump decisions on Iran, sources say

JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told confidants in private conversations that Israel has little ability to influence Mr Donald Trump’s decision-making on Iran as the US President negotiates a deal in the nearly three-month-old war, two sources said.

Mr Netanyahu’s comments, described to Reuters by two Israeli officials with knowledge of the conversations, come as Israel has largely been left out of talks to reach an initial deal to halt a war that began with joint US-Israeli bombardment.

Both the US and Iran have played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough in talks, and they remain at odds over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Tehran’s demands for the lifting of sanctions and Israel’s war in Lebanon with Hezbollah militants.

Mr Netanyahu is demanding the right to continue operations against perceived threats on all fronts, including Lebanon, a caveat that could derail a deal if Iran insists on a complete halt to Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon.

Netanyahu will do ‘whatever I want him to do’, says Trump

One of the Israeli officials, involved in Mr Netanyahu’s private conversations, said the Israeli leader had expressed concerns about the memorandum of understanding currently being negotiated. Both of the sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

The agreement would see Iran open the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US lifting its naval blockade, a senior Trump administration official said, followed by further negotiations on nuclear issues.

The US and Iran have been holding indirect talks mediated by Pakistan.

Iranian sources have told Reuters that, in future stages, “feasible formulas” could be found to resolve the dispute over Iran’s highly enriched uranium stockpile, including diluting the material under the supervision of the UN nuclear watchdog.

Despite the agreement not immediately addressing Israel’s concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme and stockpile, Mr Netanyahu acknowledges that Israel “has no manoeuvre to influence the President right now”, the Israeli official said.

Mr Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu have spoken by phone at least three times in the last week, a period during which Israeli officials said the country had made preparations for a return to joint air strikes with the US on Iran, targeting energy infrastructure.

After the first of their three conversations, on the night of May 19, Mr Trump was asked by reporters what he told Mr Netanyahu.

“He’s a very good man, he’ll do whatever I want him to do,” Mr Trump said.

The two men spoke again on the night of May 22.

Mr Trump and Mr Netanyahu spoke for a third time the next day, after Mr Trump held a joint call with leaders from the Gulf, Turkey and Pakistan to update them on the status of the Iran negotiations.

After that call, Mr Netanyahu, who had yet to publicly comment on any emerging deal with Iran, said in a statement that he and Mr Trump discussed the “memorandum of understanding to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the upcoming negotiations towards a final agreement on Iran's nuclear programme”.

Mr Netanyahu said he and Mr Trump “agreed that any final agreement... means dismantling Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites and removing its enriched nuclear material from its territory”.

He also said Mr Trump “reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against threats on every front, including Lebanon”.

Israel and Hezbollah have continued fighting despite an April 16 ceasefire, struck after the US and Iran agreed to a broader truce.

Israeli troops have remained deployed across a swathe of southern Lebanon and the military has continued to carry out air strikes targeting Hezbollah, while the militants have fired drones towards troops and into northern Israeli towns.

Netanyahu under pressure before election

The deal’s emergence comes at a sensitive time for Mr Netanyahu ahead of a national election he is projected to lose. His opponents have criticised him for having failed to achieve his stated objectives in the war.

At the start of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb 28, Mr Netanyahu said Israel aimed to create the conditions to topple Iran’s clerical government, eliminate its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, and cripple its ability to project power across the region.

Mr Trump gave a final order to launch the Iran operation after Mr Netanyahu argued in a conversation with the US President for their forces’ joint killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Reuters has reported. Mr Khamenei was killed in the first strikes.

Israeli and US war objectives have diverged since then, with the US focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war had carried a fifth of global shipments of oil and liquefied natural gas.

In a CBS TV interview earlier in May, Mr Netanyahu stressed that more needed to be done to ensure enriched uranium exits Iran, that the country ends its support for regional proxies, and that it stops producing ballistic missiles.

“There’s work to be done,” Mr Netanyahu said. REUTERS