"Netanyahu Presses Trump to Immediately Strike Iran After Midterms"

"Continues Tense Talks with Trump"
"Trump Wants to See Whether Diplomatic Talks Will Proceed"}

AP-Yonhap News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged U.S. President Donald Trump during a phone call to immediately resume military operations against Iran right after the midterm elections, Axios reported on Nov. 1 local time. Questions have been raised about whether Netanyahu is pressing for the resumption of military operations to serve the interests of his camp, which failed to secure a majority in Israel's general election.

According to Axios, Netanyahu strongly pressed Trump in a phone call on Nov. 1 to immediately resume military operations against Iran right after the midterm elections on Nov. 3. Israel's Channel 12 also quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying, "The two leaders had a tense exchange over the U.S.-Iran negotiations being conducted with Qatar's mediation," and that "President Trump hopes Israel will refrain from interfering in U.S. diplomatic efforts for the time being."

According to Channel 12, behind-the-scenes negotiations between the United States and Iran are continuing. Qatar, the mediator, has been meeting with Iranian officials in Doha for three consecutive days, while also maintaining direct contact with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Trump's key envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The White House and the Israeli Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on the reports.

Netanyahu's strong calls to resume military operations while negotiations between the United States and Iran are underway are thought to be linked to ongoing talks among Israel's opposition parties to form a coalition. If the Israeli opposition forms a coalition with a majority of at least 61 seats in parliament, Netanyahu's government could fall immediately.

According to The Times of Israel (TOI), Gadi Eisenkot, head of the anti-Netanyahu alliance in Israel's opposition and leader of the Yashar Party, has begun talks with Arab parties to form a coalition. Those parties became kingmakers after winning 19 seats in the general election. The election results gave the pro-Netanyahu camp 53 seats and the anti-Netanyahu camp 48 seats, while Arab parties won a record 19 seats.

However, forming a coalition with the pro-Palestinian Arab parties is expected to be difficult. Eisenkot has said he will strongly demand that the Arab parties break with Hamas and designate it a terrorist organization as conditions for coalition talks.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.