Benjamin Netanyahu ‘fears US and Iran holding secret talks’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly concerned the US is holding secret talks with Iran behind his back.

The Israeli prime minister is said to have approached the White House after he received intelligence suggesting Donald Trump’s administration was speaking to Iran about a potential ceasefire, Axios reported.

“The White House told [Mr Netanyahu] that the Trump administration wasn’t talking to the Iranians behind his back,” one source said.

The report hints at potential friction between the allies, who launched joint strikes on the regime on Saturday.

Netyanyahu may be concerned that the war with Iran would end before Israel had achieved its military objectives.

According to The New York Times, Iranian intelligence services reached out to the CIA to discuss terms for ending the war on Sunday.

However, this offer is said to have been viewed with scepticism by the US.

Netanyahu reportedly approached the White House the following day and was reassured that no talks or exchange of messages had taken place.

A US official said Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the American peace envoys who led failed negotiations with Iran to curb its nuclear programme, are speaking to Mr Netanyahu almost every day.

“They know we are not talking to the Iranians,” they said.

Another administration figure said on Tuesday that Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner had not spoken to Abbas Aragchi, the Iranian foreign minister, or Ali Larijani, the late Ayatollah’s closest aide, since the war began.

Over recent days, Tehran has reportedly made further overtures to Washington through the Gulf states. “We treated these messages as bulls---,” a US official said.

Trump ruled out talks with the Iranian regime on Tuesday.

“Their air defence, air force, navy, and leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said ‘too late!’” the US president wrote on Truth Social.

The Trump administration has said the objective of the war is to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme, ballistic missile capabilities and navy, while neutering its proxy groups in the Middle East.

It has not explicitly said it wants regime change, although Mr Trump on Saturday called on the Iranian people to take control of the government, declaring: “It will be yours to take.”

Israel, by contrast, has reportedly targeted the regime’s leading figures, and on Saturday morning assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when it dropped dozens of bombs on his compound in central Tehran.

Senior Trump administration figures have distanced themselves from the strike.

As of Wednesday, the White House said 49 of Iran’s most senior figures have been killed since the conflict began.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, has refused to be drawn on whether the US could work with Mojtaba Khamenei, who has emerged as the frontrunner to take over from his father as Supreme Leader.

Since calling on the Iranian people to rise up, Mr Trump has said his “perfect scenario” in Iran is a system akin to Venezuela, where Delcy Rodriguez took over after the US captured Nicolas Maduro in January.

Ms Rodriguez, Mr Maduro’s former deputy, was reportedly identified by intelligence services as someone who could prevent Venezuela falling into chaos while cooperating with the US.

However, that plan risks being derailed by senior Iranian figures being picked off by Israeli airstrikes.

“Most of the people we had in mind are dead,” Mr Trump, who is under pressure from isolationist Republicans not to be drawn into another “forever war” in the Middle East, said on Tuesday. “Pretty soon we are not going to know anybody.”

Analysts have suggested Israel may not want Mr Trump to find a “Venezuela-like solution” in Iran which allows the survival of the regime, albeit one more favourable to US interests.

Source: The Telegraph

- Agencies