LONDON: Commentators from the US to Israel have speculated whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit this week to the White House revealed cracks in the relationship between an American president looking for an exit ramp from the Iran conflict and an Israeli prime minister hoping to cling to office by keeping it going. Contrary to US President Donald Trump’s usual “ringmaster” approach to Oval Office diplomacy, his meeting with Netanyahu on Tuesday, on the five-month anniversary of the start of the US-Israel war with Iran, was held behind closed doors.

On his seventh Washington visit since Trump returned to office, the prime minister will seek to protect Israel’s interests as the US pauses strikes, explores diplomacy with Tehran…

The sit-down comes at a politically fraught moment for the Israeli prime minister.