Trump Promised Netanyahu to Help Israel Build What Iran Missiles Destroy

Former US President Donald Trump pledged to Netanyahu to rebuild what Iran missiles destroy in Israel's infrastructure in the event of a war (AFP)
Former US President Donald Trump pledged to Netanyahu to rebuild what Iran missiles destroy in Israel's infrastructure in the event of a war (AFP)
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Trump Promised Netanyahu to Help Israel Build What Iran Missiles Destroy

Former US President Donald Trump pledged to Netanyahu to rebuild what Iran missiles destroy in Israel's infrastructure in the event of a war (AFP)
Former US President Donald Trump pledged to Netanyahu to rebuild what Iran missiles destroy in Israel's infrastructure in the event of a war (AFP)

Journalist Barak Ravid revealed some secrets of the Israeli-US relations during the term of former US President Donald Trump and his feelings of resentment towards former Israeli prime minister and current opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ravid said that although the US administration pledged to help Israel rebuild everything that gets destroyed by Iran's missiles in the event of a war, the Trump administration felt it was "backstabbed" by Tel Aviv.

Ravid said that during his interview with the former president for his new book "Trump's Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East," Trump said he felt used on the Soleimani strike and "Israel did not do the right thing."

The assassination of Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in January 2020 seemed like the height of US-Israel cooperation. However, it became a significant point of tension between the two allies.

"I can't talk about this story. But I was very disappointed in Israel having to do with that event. ... People will be hearing about that at the right time," Trump said.

Trump expected Israel to play a more active role in the attack, and he believed Netanyahu was "willing to fight Iran to the last American soldier," according to a former senior Trump administration official.

The former senior US official said Trump's anger wasn't warranted, but that he put the episode into the same box he had put his feelings for NATO - of allies wanting the US to do their fighting for them.

Netanyahu tried to pull Trump aside to make amends when he visited the White House in September 2020 to sign the Abraham Accords. However, Trump wasn't convinced and continued to believe Netanyahu had used him, a former White House official told Ravid.

A senior Israeli defense official told Ravid that Israel proposed a more active role for Israeli forces. However, the US insisted on being the ones to execute the strike.

Israel provided the US with crucial intelligence support for the attack. The former VP Mike Pence called the Israeli National Security Adviser, Meir Ben Shabat, to thank him.

Meanwhile, journalist Alex Fishman affirmed that the reconstruction was part of a confidential plan that only a few Israeli political and security officials knew about.

In an article in Ynet, Fishman said that Israel and the US do not have a military alliance yet. However, they establish deep cooperative relations, especially between the security commands.

The US realized that it could use Israeli intelligence and military capabilities to fight ISIS. Thus intelligence and military cooperation were established on Syrian territory, Fishman added.

In recent years, a special operations room for the Air Force was set up at the headquarters of the Israeli army in Tel Aviv to cooperate with the US in Syria.

A senior Israeli official described it as an unprecedented close and daily cooperation level.

Fishman noted that the claim that Israel does not need to inform the US about its intentions against Iran is "obsolete."

He indicated that Netanyahu and his defense minister at the time, Ehud Barak, claimed they authorized an independent military attack against Iran in 2011, however, it was a mere threat.

According to Fishman's report, experts from outside the Israeli security service estimate that Tel Aviv is three to five years far from a situation in which it will attack Iran independently and achieve an effective result.



South Korea and EU Condemn North Korea’s Reported Troop Dispatch to Russia

 In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, left, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)
In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, left, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)
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South Korea and EU Condemn North Korea’s Reported Troop Dispatch to Russia

 In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, left, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)
In this photo provided by South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, left, and European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, right, pose for a photo at the Defense Ministry, in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)

Top South Korean and European Union officials on Monday strongly condemned North Korea’s reported troop dispatch to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine and agreed to work together to try to block deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang.

North Korea’s alleged troop deployment threatens to expand the almost 3-year-long war and is causing security jitters in South Korea, where many worry Russia might reward the North by giving it sophisticated weapons technology or offering a defense commitment in the event of a conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

In a meeting in Seoul, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun and the EU’s visiting foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed “serious concerns” about North Korea’s reported troop dispatch and “strongly condemned” it, according to a statement from the South Korean Defense Ministry.

The two agreed to work together with the international community to try to obstruct Russian-North Korean security cooperation, the statement said.

The US government said Thursday that about 8,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia near Ukraine’s border and preparing to join Russia’s fight against Ukraine in the coming days. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday urged allies to stop just “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield.

According to US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments, North Korea was estimated to have moved about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia. If they start fighting against Ukraine forces, it would mark North Korea’s first participation in a large-scale conflict since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used the Russia-Ukraine war as a way to expand defense and economic cooperation with Russia in the face of an intensifying US-led pressure campaign against his advancing nuclear program. The US, South Korea and others accuse North Korea of having already exported artillery shells, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia.

In the past two years, Kim has also ramped up tests of nuclear-capable missile systems, as Russia and China have repeatedly blocked US-led attempts to toughen international sanctions on North Korea over its testing activities in defiance of UN bans. North Korea has also pushed to sever relations and abandon its long-standing goal of reconciliation with South Korea.

In a background briefing with local media Monday, South Korea’s military said North Korea has built anti-tank, trench-like structures at two sites near the Koreas' heavily armed border, where it blew up northern parts of unused cross-border road and rail routes last month in a display of anger toward South Korea. One of the sites is on the western portion of the border and the other on the eastern section.

Details of the briefing were shared with The Associated Press.

The structure at the eastern part of the border was assessed to be 160 meters (524 feet) long while the one at the western part of the border was about 120 meters (393 feet) long, according to the South Korean military briefing.

In a war situation, the North could easily fill up the trenches with piles of dirt nearby to create routes to invade the South, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Recent commercial satellite images suggest that the work on the trenches began shortly after North Korea staged choreographed demolitions of a road near the western North Korean border city of Kaesong and a combined road and rail section near the Koreas’ eastern border on Oct. 15.

Last week, North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile designed to attack the US mainland for the first time in almost a year.