Netanyahu's decision to phase out American financial support arrives just as Trump pursues a diplomatic opening with Tehran that the Israeli prime minister has done everything to derail.
In a remarkable pivot that underscores the fracturing of Washington's Middle East strategy, President Donald Trump has now declared that he wants a face-to-face with Iran's elusive new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moves to sever the military aid relationship that has underpinned American-Israeli ties for decades.
The two developments, unfolding within days of each other in early June 2026, expose a US-Israel alliance under extraordinary strain: Trump pursuing peace with America's longtime regional adversary while Netanyahu appears to be positioning Israel for a more unilateral future, and, according to multiple sources, actively threatening to blow up the talks that could get Trump there.
In a podcast interview with the New York Post's Pod Force One published on 3 June 2026, Trump confirmed his willingness to engage directly with the man who leads Iran from an undisclosed location. 'Yeah, I'd like to meet him. I'd like to meet everybody. I'd like to meet him. We probably will meet at some point, depending on how it all works,' Trump said when asked about Mojtaba Khamenei.
The statement carries unusual weight.Mojtaba Khamenei, born 8 September 1969 and now 56, assumed the position of Supreme Leaderon 8 March 2026, following his father Ali Khamenei's assassination in US-Israeli strikes on 28 February, the opening day of the 2026 Iran war. He has not appeared publicly since being wounded in the same strike that killed his father.
Khamenei 'is increasingly engaging at some level, although all of his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 2 June 2026, his first public congressional testimony since the war began. Rubio added that it can take three to five days for Iranian negotiators to respond to US proposals, citing internal divisions within the Tehran regime and the use of a complex courier network.
Trump also claimed, in the same New York Post interview, that Iran has 'already agreed' not to pursue nuclear weapons, describing the issue as a major breakthrough in talks aimed at ending the conflict that erupted in late February. Iranian officials have not publicly confirmed that characterisation.
The backdrop to Trump's overture is a fragile diplomatic architecture that has been repeatedly tested. Diplomatic efforts centre on a fragile April 2026 ceasefire brokered by Pakistan and Oman, with indirect talks addressing the Strait of Hormuz reopening, disposal of Iran's highly enriched uranium, sanctions relief, and limits on its nuclear and ballistic programmes.
The ceasefire itself has been tested repeatedly. An Iranian attack on Kuwait's airport on 4 June marked one of the more severe tests yet of the shaky 8 April ceasefire. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed the attack, saying it was in retaliation for US strikes on an Iranian oil tanker and island. Both sides continue to accuse the other of violations, even as negotiators reportedly draft non-nuclear elements of a memorandum of understanding.
"You're f****** crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your a***. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this."That's what a U.S. official tells Axios President Trump unloaded on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a heated…pic.twitter.com/JyehxI6QrP
Source: International Business Times UK
