If you have been following the news, you will probably have heard that, per the White House, we are close to an agreement with Iran where Iran would turn over its processed Uranium. I'm not hopeful given that Islam has historically used a strategy of pretending to seek peace when it is facing defeat in order to give it time to build strength or otherwise obtain an advantage (aka, the Hudaybiyya strategy). So, over the short term, the Iranians may be negotiating in order to buy time, such as time to move the Uranium to a more secure location, or move weapons around, or some other object. Long term, they might agree to U.S. terms with no real intent on abandoning their nuclear program (or turn to alternative WMD research).
Nevertheless, Trump's attempts to negotiate a deal with Iran does not match with Israel's desire to utterly devastate Iran. Thus, I've seen reports of Israeli officials upset that they have largely been excluded from negotiations with Iran (see, e.g., "US has almost completely excluded Israel from Iran negotiations, Israeli defense officials tell NYT" from the Times of Israel). That article relates:
The United States has almost completely excluded Israel from the negotiations with Iran, two Israeli defense officials tell The New York Times.
Israel was not involved at all in the discussions ahead of the ceasefire and learned of developments in the talks between the US and Tehran from regional diplomatic contacts, as well as through the use of surveillance, the report says.
Someday soon we will need to do something about Israeli spies and hacking of U.S. government computer networks. The article adds:
The report notes that in the run-up to the start of the war against Iran earlier this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in close coordination with Trump and was leading a discussion in the Situation Room in Washington predicting the fall of the regime in Tehran.
“The banishment from the cockpit to economy class has potentially significant consequences for Israel,” the newspaper says.
Consequently, Israel has unleashed its loyal Congress critters. The Daily Mail reports, "Trump lashes out at Republican rebels as Cruz and Graham warn his Iran deal could be a 'disastrous mistake'." It begins:
President Donald Trump angrily lashed out at Republican critics on Sunday after allies including Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham publicly warned his emerging Iran deal could become a 'disastrous mistake' that hands Tehran a massive strategic victory.
The extraordinary public feud exposed deep cracks inside the GOP as some of the party's most hawkish national security voices openly questioned whether Trump was on the verge of repeating the very same Obama-era nuclear agreement he once denounced as catastrophic.
Their complaint is that Trump is considering an agreement that would "reopen the Strait of Hormuz, establish a 60-day ceasefire and continue negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program while details are finalized."
Senators including Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham openly sounded the alarm over the pending agreement.
Cruz delivered one of the sharpest attacks over the weekend, saying he was 'deeply concerned' by what he was hearing from inside the administration.
'If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime - still run by Islamists who chant 'death to America' - now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,' Cruz wrote on X.
'The details are still coming out - and I pray the early reports are wrong - but the fact that Biden's Rob Malley is praising the deal is not encouraging,' he added, referring to the former Biden Iran envoy who helped negotiate the 2015 Obama nuclear deal.
Cruz's warning then triggered a flood of criticism from other Republican national security hawks.
It is notable that Cruz has received more money from AIPAC than most any other politician, while Graham ranks very high as well. It is telling that Republican senators will publicly split from the President over this issue just because it does not match the outcome that Israel wanted, even though pursuing a path that would lower fuel prices would benefit Americans.
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