Israel cut out of Iran deal as Trump keeps deriding Netanyahu in public
TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli governmentwas not shown the memorandum of understanding drafted to end the war with Iran, an Israeli government official told NBC News on Wednesday, the latest sign of growing tension between the United States and Israel.
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Shortly after President Donald Trump said he had given a copy of the MOU to Israel, the same source said Israel still hadn’t seen the draft. The source wouldn’t comment on whether or not Israeli diplomats had asked for the text and were denied it.
The Israeli government’s absence in the negotiations leading up to the MOU has become a perilous hindrance for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces career-defining elections before the end of October. The deal framework was provided to NBC News by a senior U.S. official later on Wednesday.
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The Israeli public’s reckoning with Netanyahu’s performance has also collided with an increasingly impatient Trump, whose invective against the prime minister over the past several days has shaken an increasingly isolated Israel.
“Without me, there would be no Israel,” Trump told the G7 summit Tuesday, calling Netanyahu “crazy” and using an expletive to describe his poor judgment. But Trump took particular issue with Netanyahu’s continuing attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, where more than 1 million have been driven from their homes and more than 3,500 people have died, derailing talks with Iran in the past.
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Trump openly criticized seemingly indiscriminate Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
