Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to press Donald Trump to take a hard line in talks with Iran as he makes his seventh visit to the US since the start of the president\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n
Netanyahu<\/a> said on Tuesday that he would present Israel\u2019s \u201cperceptions of the principles in the negotiations\u201d to Trump during their meeting on Wednesday, which would focus \u201cfirst and foremost\u201d on US discussions with Tehran.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Trump administration\u2019s renewed efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme \u2014 and avoid the military strikes<\/a> that the president has threatened for weeks \u2014 have alarmed the Israeli government and Iran hawks in Trump\u2019s Republican Party, who want to see Washington take more aggressive action against the Islamic republic.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no point\u201d in negotiating with Iran, Eli Cohen, a member of Netanyahu\u2019s cabinet, said earlier this week, because \u201cit has never honoured any commitment it has made\u201d.<\/p>\n US and Iranian officials voiced cautious optimism after resuming indirect talks<\/a> in Oman last week, and Trump said the discussions \u2014 the first since the US bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in June \u2014 were \u201cvery good\u201d.<\/p>\n But pressure from Netanyahu could also mark an inflection point for a US president whom analysts say is prone to \u201cgut-level\u201d policy shifts based on his most recent conversations, sometimes surprising even close aides.<\/p>\n After meeting with Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in late December, Trump, who had in previous months boasted of having \u201cobliterated\u201d Iran\u2019s nuclear enrichment programme, made a sudden pivot.<\/p>\n \u201cNow I hear that Iran is trying to build up again and, if they are, we have to knock them down,\u201d he said with Netanyahu at his side. Trump threatened to \u201cknock the hell out of\u201d Iran and warned that \u201cthe consequences will be very powerful\u201d if Iran is found to be \u201cbehaving\u201d badly.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s erratic. He is one of these leaders who listens to the last person who talks to him,\u201d said Colin Dueck, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an expert on the influence of Republican politics in foreign policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n A few days after the December meeting, as the regime in Tehran cracked down on protests, Trump raised the ante further, posting on Truth Social that the US was \u201clocked and loaded and ready to go\u201d, adding that if the Iranian regime \u201cviolently kills peaceful protesters, the United States of America will come to their rescue\u201d.<\/p>\n But Trump has continued to waver on launching strikes and even those closest to him suggest he has yet to decide the best course of action.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the president is going to make the ultimate decision about where we draw the red lines in the negotiations,\u201d vice-president JD Vance told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n Ray Takeyh, senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, said any pressure on Trump from Netanyahu could be significant because the Israelis are \u201cnot interested in an agreement\u201d with Tehran and are alarmed by the talks in Oman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s government and the Trump administration also have fundamentally different understandings about what was accomplished in the US strikes on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Israelis thought they mowed the lawn. The president thought he burned down the house. The Israelis want to mow the lawn again. And I don\u2019t know if the Americans do at this point,\u201d Takeyh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Iran hawks in Washington have been growing impatient. Some such as South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, insist that Trump will follow through with his pledges to help Iranian protesters. <\/p>\n As the president weighs up military action, Washington has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group, fighter jets and air defences to the region.<\/p>\n \u201cTo the brave people of Iran: President Trump has always heard your cries and demands for justice. The regime has proven yet again it\u2019s incapable of real change,\u201d he wrote on X<\/a> after Iran this week jailed reformist politicians. Graham added: \u201cIf this regime continues the course they are on, then I believe President Trump\u2019s statement that help is on the way is becoming more real by the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Other Iran hawks say that a failure by Trump to deliver on his threats would harm US credibility.<\/p>\n![\"Observers](\"https:\/\/images.ft.com\/v3\/image\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net%2Fproduction%2Fbd17bc54-4816-4eaa-bafd-14b638bfb38a.jpg?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=1\")
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