President Donald Trump has spent months projecting confidence that a deal to end the Iran conflict is within reach. Israel¡¯s determination to press ahead with its own objectives underscores his tenuous control over the outcome of the crisis.
The latest diplomatic rupture followed days of Israeli military escalation against Hezbollah in Lebanon, prompting a phone call between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The leaders offered differing accounts on what was agreed ¡ª with the U.S. president initially suggesting a broader truce than his counterpart was willing to declare.
The episode cast a fresh spotlight on an element of the war Trump has largely refused to acknowledge: The U.S. and Israel have very different ideas about what an end to the war should look like. That divide is jeopardizing the fragile, long-running negotiations between Washington and Tehran, which insists that Lebanon must be part of any peace agreement.
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