U.S. pressure to end the conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran has further exposed disagreements between Washington and Tel Aviv, Israel’s Channel 13 said.
Channel 13, citing unnamed political sources, said U.S. Central Command Commander Admiral Brad Cooper conveyed Washington’s message calling for progress on all three fronts during his visit to Israel on Saturday.
Washington’s demands on Gaza and Lebanon
The United States asked Israel to withdraw from some positions within the security zone in southern Lebanon, Channel 13 said. Washington also pressed for progress in Gaza and for the inclusion in the area of a multinational force that currently includes hundreds of troops from Morocco and Uganda, the channel reported.
Israeli military officials told the U.S. side that they reserved the right to take action against Iran if it became clear that Tehran was continuing to develop its nuclear program or rebuild its ballistic missile system.
Debate over military operations in Israel
Channel 13 said Israeli security officials had challenged the political leadership in recent days. The channel said the objections stemmed from U.S. demands to halt targeted assassination operations and scale back military activity in Gaza.
Channel 13 also said those demands were not explicitly included in the proposals under discussion. A senior Israeli army officer described the American message conveyed to the military as “progress toward closing all three fronts.”
Trump says he postponed military action against Iran
U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington had decided to de-escalate tensions with Iran at the current stage, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Sunday. Trump said the United States was “proceeding cautiously” on Iran, had postponed major military action for now and was instead focusing on increasing economic pressure.
Trump also said the United States was conducting partial negotiations with Iran and closely monitoring the country.
Iran talks and the Strait of Hormuz
The statements came as regional and international expectations continued over the future of negotiations between Washington and Tehran. While U.S. pressure on Iran continued, rhetoric predicting an imminent direct military confrontation between the two countries declined, Channel 13 said.
U.S. media reported that Trump had planned to continue attacks against Iran until the previous week. Trump stepped back from that position after military briefings warned of a sharp decline in stocks of some advanced missile types, the reports said. Trump had also made more cautious statements on Iran for about a week.
Since February 28, the region has experienced waves of military conflict alongside periods of cautious calm, Channel 13 said. The Strait of Hormuz emerged as one of the key issues in the stalled U.S.-Iran negotiations.
The United States and Israel launched attacks against Iran on that date, and more than 3,000 people were killed in the attacks, according to Iran. Iran said U.S. and Israeli citizens were killed in its retaliatory attacks and announced that military facilities and equipment in Gulf countries had also been targeted.
Civilians were killed and civilian facilities were damaged in some of the attacks. The countries targeted condemned the attacks and called for them to end.
