TEL AVIV — President Donald Trump's decision to pause strikes on Iran and pursue diplomacy once again has underscored a difficult reality for Israel — despite months of pressing Washington to sustain military pressure on Iran, Israeli officials appear to have had little sway in the White House. 

“The Israeli leadership realizes it has little to no influence over decision-making in Washington on the Iran file. That is why the government has not reacted publicly to reports about the potential resumption of talks between Washington and Tehran,” Raz Zimmt, director of the Iran and the Shiite Axis Research Program at the Institute for National Security Studies, told Al-Monitor.

On Sunday, Trump said negotiations with Iran to finalize a deal reopening the Strait of Hormuz would begin Monday. Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said that he had called off a major attack on Iran over the weekend following requests from allies. “We were all set to go at this time right now, and it would have been a massive attack… but [then] the allies asked to call it off… The reason they asked is they think there’s a deal,” he said. 

Neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor any other cabinet minister reacted publicly to Trump’s statement, indicating that Israel had been left in the dark over the weekend regarding Trump’s intentions toward Iran, Zimmt said.