US vice president says Netanyahu 'certainly got some things wrong'

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has "certainly gotten some things wrong", US Vice President JD Vance has said, as ties between the two partners in the war against Iran appear to have become strained in recent weeks.

Vance said the interests of the United States and Israel are not always in sync.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu, look, he governs a country that has obviously been a very close partner of the United States. But, even when we've been close partners, sometimes we have interests that are perfectly aligned and sometimes we have interests that are misaligned," Vance told CBS News' Robert Costa in an interview due to air on Sunday.

"Sometimes that means we're on the same page and sometimes it means that we're not," Vance said, adding that "where that diverges, we, unfortunately for the Israelis, have to choose the side of the American people, which we always do."

His comments mark a further public admission that relations between the two allies have come under pressure of late.

Vance described Netanyahu as a leader who "aggressively asserts the interests of his country" but said Trump "has been very clear about what is in our best interest."

Asked whether Netanyahu has made any mistakes in how he's approached his relationship with the US on Iran, Vance said, "he's certainly gotten some things wrong."

Vance declined to give examples, saying those conversations "are better left in private."

Recently, Trump reportedly clashed with the Israeli leader over military action in Lebanon that brought renewed strikes and threatened peace talks with Tehran.

The US and Iran exchanged strikes for a second consecutive day overnight, straining a ceasefire between the two nations that has remained in place since April.

It came after Trump said Tehran had taken "too long to make a deal" to end the war, though the renewed hostilities were triggered by events in Lebanon, where Israel has continued an operation aimed at the Iranian-backed armed group Hezbollah.

Last week, Trump told an Axios journalist that he had called Netanyahu "effing crazy" in a phone conversation, saying he had been "a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon".

The US vice president went on to say that it was the job of the Trump administration to focus on what was in America's best interests, "and where that diverges, we — unfortunately for the Israelis — have to choose the side of the American people".

Trump has typically been an ardent proponent of Israel during both his terms in the White House — but his attempts to extricate himself from a potentially drawn-out and increasingly costly conflict in the Middle East have been frustrated by Israel's ongoing operation in Lebanon.

Tehran is demanding that any peace agreement also cover Lebanon and threatened to suspend peace talks before the renewed strikes began.

Israel has conducted strikes across Lebanon and occupied a significant portion of the south of the country in a bid to beat back Hezbollah fighters, who launched strikes on northern Israel shortly after the Iran war began in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran's supreme leader.

Trump is seeking a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ending a global energy crisis caused by an Iranian blockade, and limit Iran's nuclear programme, a long-held ambition of the US president.

The souring of relations reflects sentiments in the US: opinion polling suggests the Iran war is increasingly unpopular among Americans, who will vote in Midterm elections this November and who are taking a dimmer view of Israel.

Netanyahu, too, faces elections this year, in which he will have to convince Israeli voters that he is winning the war with Iran and its regional proxies.

Netanyahu, for his part, has sought to downplay any rift with the Trump administration.

"Sometimes we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements," he told CNBC last week. "We always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends."