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Iran rejects Trump frozen funds plan, warns ships of Hormuz transit ban

Iran rejects Trump frozen funds plan, warns ships of Hormuz transit ban

Iran rejects Trump frozen funds plan, warns ships of Hormuz transit ban NewsFeed Iran rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that ships damaged by Iran in the Gulf would be compensated from frozen Iranian funds. IRGC spokesperson Ebrahim Zolfaghari warned that any vessel taking such money will be banned from transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Published On 28 Jul 2026 Adblock test (Why?)

Trump expresses frustration with Netanyahu before White House meeting

Trump expresses frustration with Netanyahu before White House meeting

US president says Iran talks progressing, reups threats if diplomacy fails before sit down with Israeli prime minister. United States President Donald Trump has appeared to express frustration with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before their meeting at the White House. Trump made the comments to Fox News on Tuesday, just hours before he and the Israeli prime minister were set to meet in the Oval Office, their first such meeting since they jointly launched the war with Iran on February 28. Recommended Stories list of 3 items list 1 of 3Israel’s approval of limited Gaza force a calculated manoeuvre, experts say list 2 of 3Are the US and Iran heading towards a forever war? list 3 of 3Trump calls protester ‘communist’ after Michigan speech interruption end of list The US president pushed back when asked about reports that Netanyahu planned to discuss alleged intelligence related to Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, an underground nuclear site. “I don’t need Bibi to tell me that,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname He added that Netanyahu is “telling me that because he wants me to stay involved”. “I said: ‘Why didn’t you just tell it to me, why did you have to announce it to the world?’” he said, referring to the report. “I know exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe. It’s not a big problem,” Trump said. Tuesday’s meeting with Netanyahu comes at a precarious time for Trump, who has said the US and Iran are engaged in a new diplomatic push following a 13-day escalation. He has repeatedly threatened new attacks, including on Pickaxe Mountain and Iran’s civilian infrastructure, if the talks fail. That fighting followed the breakdown of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the US and Iran in June, which saw a halt to fighting, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and the lifting of the US naval blockade on Iran. Netanyahu’s government had opposed that deal and has favoured continued military operations aimed at regime change. US media reports, meanwhile, have fuelled public perception that Netanyahu has repeatedly influenced Trump to take military action against Iran, including in the run-up to the 12-day war last year and the current war, which has stretched on for five months. The conflict has remained widely unpopular in the US, and increasingly, within segments of Trump’s Republican party. Still, Trump downplayed the differences on Iran when speaking to reporters on Monday. “We have a little difference,” Trump said of Netanyahu, “but pretty close, yeah.” During that exchange, Trump also pushed back on Israel’s opposition to the US resuming its F-35 programme with Turkiye. “Frankly, we’re being very nice to a lot of countries that would not survive without us. And you know who wouldn’t survive without us? Israel.” Despite Trump and, notably, his vice president, JD Vance, showing more willingness to criticise Israel in recent weeks, Washington’s policy of staunch military support has remained unchanged. Netanyahu’s visit comes as lawmakers continued to mull a defence budget that would integrate parts of the US and Israel’s militaries, with the package already passed by the US House of Representatives. For his part, Netanyahu, speaking on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” over the weekend,  said he hoped to sit down with Trump “to hear what he has in mind” for Iran. Analysts have said the Israeli prime minister is acutely aware of his tanking popularity in the US, and will likely try to shed the perception he is trying to push the US into further war. On Trump, Netanyahu said it’s largely “his decision” on how to move forward. “If he can do so without returning to intense military fighting, that’s fine. Why not?” he said, before reiterating his government’s zero-tolerance approach to Iran’s civilian nuclear programme. “But one way or the other, they have to end their nuclear program,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)

Is Netanyahu’s Trump card losing its power in Israel?

Is Netanyahu’s Trump card losing its power in Israel?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long presented his closeness to the United States – both politically and personally – as evidence of his indispensability to Israel. Arriving with a camera-ready American accent after spending a large portion of his youth in the country, Netanyahu is said to have used his unique understanding of US politics to charm and cajole numerous presidents into maintaining their unflagging support of Israel and his personal political projects. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4Israeli ex-generals urge Trump to push Netanyahu on ‘settler terror’ list 2 of 4‘War criminal’: Protesters confront Netanyahu motorcade in Washington DC list 3 of 4Netanyahu meets Trump at the White House: What’s on the agenda, what’s next list 4 of 4Trump flouts political risk to host Netanyahu’s seventh White House visit end of list For a time it appeared as though US President Donald Trump was the most amenable of all past presidents to Israel and to Netanyahu, particularly after he became the first US leader to agree to participate in a joint war with Israel against Iran. And yet, with that war stalling, Trump appearing more willing to make deals in the Middle East without Israeli input, and increasing criticism of Israel in the US, there is a sense in Israel that Netanyahu’s Trump card may not be as useful as it once was. That has come at a bad time for Netanyahu, who faces an election at home in late October and an ongoing trial for corruption, as well as several unresolved conflicts in the region. Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on Tuesday to meet Trump – his first since the war on Iran began – therefore is an opportunity for a refresh – and a photo opportunity to remind the Israeli public of his ties to the US president. The optics Strains in Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump have been growing since the start of the war on Iran, after reporting emerged that it was the Israeli prime minister who convinced the US president of the feasibility of the mission, and the potential for the Iranian state to be overthrown. Concern has also grown within the US Congress over Netanyahu’s apparent indulgence of Israel’s increasingly violent settler movement – which included the extrajudicial detention of a US senator by settlers – alongside friction over Washington’s decision to consider selling F-35s to Israel’s regional rival Turkiye and agreeing a nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia. “The real reason Netanyahu’s got this visit [to Washington] is purely cynical,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera. “He’s claimed that he’s flying all the way to the US to attend the wake of his apparently great friend [deceased Republican Senator] Lindsey Graham.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the media as he is welcomed by US President Donald Trump for meetings at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida in December [File: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters] “Supposedly there’s an agenda, supposedly they’re going to talk about Iran, F-35s and Saudi Arabia’s potential nuclear deal,” said Pinkas. “But really this is about two things: hoping to assure allies and critics within Israel that the relationship with Trump holds and, separately, hoping that Trump will again call for his pardon in the corruption trial,” he added, referring to Trump’s unorthodox intervention in Israel on Netanyahu’s behalf in November 2025. However, while Netanyahu may be hoping that a good meeting with Trump may help him in the polls, he arrives at a time when his stock in the US is potentially at its lowest. Netanyahu has received widespread criticism from figures on the American right, such as podcast host Tucker Carlson and the former Republican US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Vice President JD Vance has also been critical of “some” Israelis, using an interview with US podcaster Joe Rogan to suggest that figures within the Israeli government were trying to derail the agreement he was brokering with Iran to end the war. Analysts have suggested that the Trump-Netanyahu meeting will combine public flattery with private cynicism on the US president’s part. Asked about Netanyahu’s public resistance to the F-35 sale to Turkiye on board Air Force One on Monday, Trump told reporters, “Nobody tells me what we should be selling”. President Trump used a press conference on board Air Force One on Monday to push back against Israeli concerns over the potential sale of fighter jets to Turkiye, telling reporters, ‘Nobody tells me what we should be selling’ [Evan Vucci/Reuters] Burnt bridges “Netanyahu arrives in Washington at a time when even many around [Trump] are suspicious of him. He has become toxic in the US,” Ahron Bregman, an Israeli security analyst and senior teaching fellow in the Department for War Studies at King’s College London. “He is regarded in the US – rightly or wrongly – as the one who dragged Trump into a war of choice that has turned into a strategic catastrophe. Nobody, not even Trump, will let him pretend to be the cleverest guy in the room. Those days are gone.” While few expect any overt signs of disharmony from the visit in public, Netanyahu’s ability to present himself as uniquely positioned to manage the country’s relationship with the US – a key factor in the upcoming election – may be limited. “Netanyahu’s had a tremendous track record with the US, but he’s burned a lot of bridges,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and a former Netanyahu aide in the 1990s, told Al Jazeera, adding that the criticism of Netanyahu was not isolated to figures within the nationalist wing of the Republican Party, but included Israel’s traditional allies within the party’s centre right. “We’ve seen tension through Trump’s comments on the various F-35 sales, including most recently to Turkiye, as well as US criticism of Netanyahu at the start of the Iran war, so I’m not too sure if Trump’s going to be stumping for Netanyahu for all that much longer,” Barak said.