Source: Flightradar24
Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Alon Pinkas has said President Donald Trump’s public criticism of Israel following its latest strike on Beirut points to an unusually deep rift between Washington and Tel Aviv.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Israel, Pinkas said it had been decades since Israel had found itself so openly at odds with a US president.
“You’d have to go 30, 40 years back,” he said, referring to tensions during the Ford administration in 1975 and under President George HW Bush in 1991.
While acknowledging previous disagreements between the allies, Pinkas argued that the current dispute is on a different scale.
“There were a lot spats, but nothing like this.”
According to Pinkas, Trump is frustrated because the outcomes he expected from the conflict with Iran have failed to materialise.
“Trump is livid, angry, disillusioned and disappointed with what Netanyahu told him,” he said, claiming that several assumptions presented by the Israeli prime minister had proved incorrect.
“The [Iranian] regime has not been toppled. There was no popular uprising, the IRGC was not demolished, Iran’s missile capability has not been destroyed.”
Pinkas added that Trump’s reaction suggests he has come to believe Netanyahu was attempting to sideline or undermine him politically.
Flights across western Iran have been suspended until further notice, according to IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency. The report said no official Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) had been issued at the time of the announcement.
The reason for the suspension was not immediately specified.
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