Trump Administration Cuts Israel Out of Feb. 28 Iran Truce Talks

8 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 23

Israeli leaders were cut almost entirely out of U.S.-Iran truce talks after the Feb. 28 attack on Iran, according to two Israeli defense officials.
Those officials said Washington sidelined Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assurances that a joint U.S.-Israeli strike could help bring down Iran’s regime proved inaccurate.
Starved of updates from its closest ally, Israel has relied on regional diplomatic contacts and its own surveillance inside Iran to track negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
The shift marks a sharp reversal from the run-up to the attack, when Netanyahu was in the Situation Room with President Trump and, by his own account, speaking with him almost daily.
For Netanyahu, the exclusion threatens a central political claim ahead of this year’s election: that he can uniquely secure and retain Trump’s backing while confronting Iran.

Did the decapitation strike on Iran backfire, forcing a truce that leaves Israel more vulnerable?

With a US-Iran truce looming, is the historic American-Israeli alliance now fundamentally broken?