{"id":680400,"date":"2026-06-02T19:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/680400\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T19:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T19:37:09","slug":"why-benjamin-netanyahu-poses-an-obstacle-to-us-and-iran-peace-deal-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/680400\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Benjamin Netanyahu poses an obstacle to US and Iran peace deal | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there is to be a peace deal between United States and Iran, it will have to go through a familiar obstacle: Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel\u2019s military operations in Lebanon have become a sticking point in the talks for a potential opening of the strait of Hormuz<\/a> \u2013 once again testing the volatile alliance between Donald Trump and Netanyahu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This time, the Israeli prime minister is under exceptional pressure to show that his campaigns against Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran have brought results as he faces elections with his political survival at risk.<\/p>\n

The Israeli leader\u2019s threats on Monday to bomb the southern suburbs of Beirut in order to dislodge Hezbollah led Iran to say it would cut off negotiations with the United States until that conflict was frozen. Trump, facing the collapse of talks after he had claimed a deal was imminent, replied: \u201cI think we\u2019ve been talking too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crisis culminated in a phone call \u2013 by one account stormy \u2013 between Trump and Netanyahu. \u201cWhat the fuck are you doing?\u201d Trump said to the Israeli prime minister<\/a>, one official told Axios, a US outlet that has frequently had inside access to Trump\u2019s frustration with Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d be in prison if it weren\u2019t for me,\u201d another person characterised Trump\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

That account is disputed. Israel\u2019s Channel 12 said that the focus was a misunderstanding between the two men: \u201cTrump felt Netanyahu implied the war was continuing at full intensity, while Netanyahu felt Trump implied a total ceasefire,\u201d wrote Amit Segal, the channel\u2019s chief political analyst, citing a close aide to Netanyahu.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a little glitch today, but I turned that one around very quickly, as you probably noticed earlier,\u201d Trump later told ABC News.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu has seen five US presidents since he first served as Israel\u2019s prime minister in 1996 and has famously gotten under the skin of all of them. (\u201cWho\u2019s the fucking superpower here?\u201d Bill Clinton was said to have exclaimed after their first meeting in 1996.)<\/p>\n

But it is a uniquely fraught moment for Netanyahu. On Monday, the Knesset voted 106-0 to pass the first reading of a bill to dissolve Israel\u2019s parliament, and early elections are expected in the autumn. After earlier surges in polling following successful strikes on Iran\u2019s leadership, Netanyahu\u2019s popularity rating has slumped as the war in Iran, as well as conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, have dragged on.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got no story going into this election, and so he needs to either somehow achieve victory in Lebanon, or if not victory, at least like tell the story that he\u2019s still fighting,\u201d said Ilan Goldenberg, a former special adviser on the Middle East to vice-president Kamala Harris and previously as the Iran team chief at the Department of Defense. He is now chief policy officer at J Street, a lobbying and advocacy group that calls itself \u201cpro-Israel, pro-peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs this so he can say: I\u2019m still working for total victory,\u201d Goldenberg said. \u201cIt\u2019s a much better story for him than: this is done, and, essentially, I\u2019ve failed to actually dislodge any of these threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

And hearings also resumed this week in a long-delayed trial in which Netanyahu is charged with fraud and bribery. Netanyahu has regularly used his position as prime minister of a country under threat to delay the trial \u2013 potentially linking his freedom to the question of whether he remains in office.<\/p>\n

While the Israeli PM was successful in lobbying Trump to strike Iran together, Trump\u2019s own political considerations in the United States may now take precedent.<\/p>\n

Despite his public claims that he was not concerned about the midterms<\/a>, Trump has regularly turned back to economic data \u2013 including petrol prices \u2013 to claim his administration has been successful. Over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, average prices across the United States were the highest they have been since Covid.<\/p>\n

And the timely leak of details of his call to Netanyahu may indicate that the Trump administration wants to be seen as tough on Israel to avoid allegations that Israel\u2019s PM is calling the shots. After the call, Netanyahu confirmed that Israel would not strike Beirut if it was not struck by Hezbollah. At least eight people were killed on Tuesday in Israeli drone strikes, hours after Trump and Netanyahu agreed to dial back the fighting.<\/p>\n

The other question remains Iran. The government has maintained a stranglehold on 20% of the global oil trade by shutting the strait of Hormuz, betting that the economic pain would sway the US in negotiations. But a US blockade has also crippled Iran\u2019s economy, threatening the longterm viability of its oil industry and the regime\u2019s own source of funding.<\/p>\n

Whether Israel\u2019s ongoing military operations in Lebanon \u2013 Netanyahu\u2019s main leverage point on the negotiations \u2013 remains a red line for Iran remains to be seen. Other incentives including unfreezing Tehran\u2019s frozen assets could sweeten the deal for Iran. But Trump, who harshly criticised Barack Obama for approving the release of frozen assets under his Iran nuclear deal, is loathe to do the same.<\/p>\n

Trump, meanwhile, has continued to say he\u2019s close to inking a deal. \u201cI still have to get a few more points,\u201d he told ABC News. Later he added: \u201cWe\u2019re going to get what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there is to be a peace deal between United States and Iran, it will have to go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-680400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}