July 30, 2026

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Iran Re-ignites War as Netanyahu Visits Washington

(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Washington on Tuesday for his first visit since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28. The Netanyahu visit, timed to the Washington funeral of the avowedly pro-Israel Senator Lindsay Graham, coincided with a fragile pause in the U.S.-Iran war. According to a wide variety of sources, the meeting was one of their shortest, perhaps reflecting U.S. President Donald Trump’s resentment of Netanyahu’s role in the decision to launch a war that has caused the U.S. significant economic difficulties and reached a strategic dead end. Reflecting U.S.-Israeli tensions on Iran and broader regional issues, including Gaza and Lebanon, there was no press availability during the session, and few official statements were released afterward. The dearth of official information on the meeting fueled speculation that the U.S. and Israel had not narrowed their differences, and no new initiatives to resolve the region’s conflicts were announced. However, Netanyahu called the meeting “one of the best” he’s ever held with Trump, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Israeli officials’ description of the meeting as “good and productive” — an assessment President Trump corroborated in interviews on Wednesday.

In the run-up to the visit, U.S. officials expressed concerns that Netanyahu would urge Trump to brush aside ongoing diplomacy and escalate the war. His position reflects the longstanding Israeli doctrine — exemplified by but not limited to Netanyahu — that the employment of overwhelming hard power is central to achieving decisive outcomes in the Middle East. The concept has led Israel to carve out “buffer zones” in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria, in an effort to protect Israelis from attacks by Iran-backed non-state actors. Yet, Israel’s policies have not brought Israel security or peace, and many favor the U.S. strategy, which uses “all elements of national power,” including diplomacy, messaging, economic sanctions, and coalition-building, alongside the employment of kinetic action. Netanyahu and his allies have criticized the June U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) as failing to secure either Israeli or U.S. interests. They have pointed to clauses in the MOU that demand an end to Israel’s combat against Lebanese Hezbollah and clauses which include only vague Iranian promises to limit its nuclear program to purely peaceful purposes. Instead, Netanyahu has continued to argue for a kinetic policy aimed at removing the Iranian regime outright rather than coercing it to conclude an acceptable diplomatic settlement.

However, there were no indications that the two leaders clashed on Iran strategy during their meeting. Israeli officials asserted the two leaders were in full agreement during their meeting on the broad goal to deny Iran a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu apparently did not, as U.S. officials had feared, present Trump with options for Israel to help the U.S. escalate, including by targeting Iranian infrastructure, regime leaders, and strongholds. Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz seemed to goad Iran into attacking Israel — a likely attempt to trigger Israel’s re-entry into the war — by publicly asserting: “American planes bombed Iran from inside Israel.”

Trump had signaled before the meeting that he would not welcome a detailed discussion of war options. He appeared on Fox News shortly before their meeting, indirectly warning the Prime Minister not to raise with him the threat posed by Iran's deeply buried, suspected nuclear site at Pickaxe Mountain. Trump told the network: “I don't need Bibi to tell me that (Pickaxe is a nuclear site hard to destroy from the air) … I know exactly what’s going on (at the site). Bibi's telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.” Netanyahu’s team told journalists the two did not discuss a possible attack on Pickaxe in their meeting.

Aside from Iran, Netanyahu’s communication director Tzipi Hotovely said the two leaders discussed the possibility of Saudi Arabia normalizing relations with Israel, which Trump called for as part of a U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal announced last week. Israel has raised concerns that the agreement might facilitate future Saudi efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel has cited statements by Saudi de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) that the Kingdom would develop or otherwise acquire a nuclear weapon if Iran did so. According to multiple sources, the U.S. sale of F-35s to Türkiye, which Israel opposes as empowering a regional rival, was not raised at the meeting. The U.S. and Israeli teams also sought to downplay differences over Israel’s military campaign against Lebanese Hezbollah. In the interests of de-escalating the war, Trump has been pressing Netanyahu to expand Israel’s withdrawals from designated “pilot zones” in south Lebanon — areas captured from Hezbollah by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and turned over to Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) control. However, Israeli officials stated that Trump did not demand Netanyahu withdraw troops from areas of south Lebanon that they are currently occupying.

Israel and the U.S. have also been at odds on Gaza, where Israel has expanded its control to more than 60 percent of the territory of the enclave, endangering the high-profile Trump “20 Point Peace Plan” for Gaza. To defuse differences with Trump on the issue, the Israeli government approved a deployment of the so-called International Stabilization Force (ISF), a key part of the Trump peace plan, on Sunday. The ISF will initially deploy 200 members from countries such as Morocco and Uganda to a designated “test” zone in the southern city of Rafah. U.S. officials have also criticized Israel’s failure to prevent rising violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, although there are no indications this issue was discussed at length by Trump and Netanyahu in their meeting.

Yet it appears to be decisions and actions by Tehran, not prodding by Netanyahu, that will trigger Trump to escalate combat against Iran and its allies. Hours after the Trump-Netanyahu meeting, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a statement that: “Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran in an attempted surprise attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East. All Iranian missiles were successfully intercepted.” The Iranian strikes, apparently targeting the U.S.-manned Muwaffaq Salti air base in Jordan, suggested Tehran’s rejection of Oman’s proposed compromise formula to manage traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The formula had emerged from Oman-Iran discussions, which included efforts by the Sultanate, Qatar, and Pakistan, to restart U.S.-Iran talks under the June MOU. The Iranian missile attack reflected the regime’s insistence on retaining its strategic leverage over the Strait, and in turn the global economy. The missile attacks might also represent an Iranian strategy to preempt renewed U.S. strikes on Iran — paused since Saturday — which Trump had threatened if diplomacy failed to fully reopen the Strait.

Suggesting it was not deterred, the U.S. immediately began retaliating not only for the Iranian missile strike but for a series of attacks by Iranian allies during the four-day pause in U.S.-Iran tit-for-tat exchanges. During the pause, in which Iran refrained from attacking shipping in the Strait, Iran apparently directed its allies to maintain pressure on the global economy by striking U.S. forces and energy infrastructure targets. According to CENTCOM on Tuesday night Eastern Time: “U.S. Central Command and the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces conducted precision strikes in Iraq, July 28, against Iran-aligned terrorists that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) directed to attack U.S. forces and Saudi energy infrastructure. U.S. and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours.” The joint strike might be intended to signal to the Houthi movement in Yemen that the U.S. will join Saudi Arabia’s effort against that group, should the Houthis escalate attacks on Saudi targets. Trump told Fox News Wednesday morning that the U.S. is planning a major attack on Iran to retaliate for the missile strike on Jordan, an action that might foreshadow a U.S. return to major combat against the Islamic Republic.