TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel supports the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and is preparing to resume war if necessary, officials said Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a cabinet meeting that Israel was maintaining the ceasefire in Iran and consulting closely with Washington while continuing attacks in Lebanon.
“The fighting continues, it has not stopped,” Netanyahu said, referring to his Sunday visit to Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon.
The first round of talks is expected on disarming Hezbollah in Lebanon and normalizing relations between Israel and Lebanon Will be in Washington on Tuesday","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93en5q2zl3o","_Identification": :"0000019d-8943-d648-a3bf-cfcb40740000","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-8943-d648-a3bf-cfcb40740001","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Will be in Washington on Tuesday.
Lebanese Ambassador to Washington Nada Hamadeh-Moawad, Israeli Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michelle Issa will lead their respective delegations to talks at the State Department, two people familiar with the matter said. He was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.
Lebanon’s prime minister was originally scheduled to visit the US this week, but he postponed the trip on Saturday, citing “lebanoncurrent internal situation in","Add":{"Target": :"New","Property":(),"url": :"https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-war-hezbollah-negotiations-394f8bdaee36bab82ab3ebc713221302","_Identification": :"0000019d-8943-d648-a3bf-cfcb40740002","_Type": :"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_Identification": :"0000019d-8943-d648-a3bf-cfcb40740003","_Type": :"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Current internal situation in Lebanon”.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military is on high alert to resume fighting if needed.
“We are discussing our high level of readiness and our preparedness to continue the operation,” Israel’s military chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said at a meeting of top military officials on Monday.
Netanyahu said he also spoke to Vice President J.D. Vance, who called him to brief him as he returned home from failed talks with Iran in Islamabad.
Netanyahu said President Donald Trump’s “central issue” is to “remove all enriched material and ensure that there is no further enrichment in Iran in the years to come.”
“We certainly support this tough stance and we are in constant coordination with the US,” he said.
Netanyahu denied any disagreement between the US and Israel on how to escalate the war with Iran.
There is widespread disappointment in Israel that the fighting is over and Netanyahu is under immense pressure to show the Israeli public that the war has accomplished the objectives he set out at the beginning: creating the conditions for a new regime in Iran and removing the threat of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
According to a poll released late last week after the ceasefire began, only 10 percent of Israelis believe the campaign so far has been a significant success, while 32 percent see it as a failure. And while 70 percent believe the ceasefire is a US concession to Iran, two-thirds of Israelis said they opposed it in the survey conducted by Agam Labs at the Hebrew University.
For now, Israel is waiting to see how Trump will respond.
“We are more of a satellite state now than ever before,” said a former senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak openly about Israeli strategy.
