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Diplomatic rupture
Israel announced the break of relations with three international organizations, including two UN agencies, after the United States withdrew from 66 global organizations the week before, according to Israel’s foreign ministry announcement in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli foreign ministry said the minister, Gideon Saar, ordered a review of Israel’s cooperation with an unspecified number of other organizations and stated that "Saar ha decidido que Israel cortará de inmediato todo contacto con las siguientes agencias de la ONU y organizaciones internacionales".
The announcement listed ONU Energía and the Alianza de Civilizaciones de la ONU, and it also named the Foro Global sobre Migración y Desarrollo, while the article says the latter is not part of the UN system.
The same report links the decision to a US memorandum signed by President Donald Trump ordering the withdrawal of the United States from 66 international organizations, including 31 UN organizations and 35 other entities, and it notes that Israel’s relationship with the three bodies before the announcement was not clear.
The article also says Israel has accused UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, of providing coverage to Hamas militants and that in 2024 two laws were approved that prohibit UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory and having contact with Israeli authorities.
Netanyahu and Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu predicted regime change is coming to Iran and said, "We have to help the Iranian people to bring down this regime, and that hasn’t changed," while also warning Iran and the US were prepared to launch another round of military strikes.
Netanyahu downplayed talk of a rift with President Trump after Trump confirmed calling him “f---ing crazy,” and Netanyahu told CNBC that the war ends remains "an open question, because the reality is open."
In a separate account, Al Jazeera reported that Netanyahu rejected the idea his ties with Trump have shifted, saying, "No, this has been this has been a great relationship because he’s been the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House."
Al Jazeera also quoted Netanyahu saying, "We have common goals. Sometimes, we have, as in the best of families, you have these tactical disagreements," and added that he said they always find a way to work them out.
The same Al Jazeera report ties the Lebanon dispute to US-Iran talks, saying Israel’s escalation in Lebanon risked derailing the talks between the US and Iran and that Trump said on Monday he spoke to Netanyahu and a representative from Hezbollah and both sides agreed to hold fire.
Gaza-linked war posture
The Al Jazeera report says Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crime charges in Gaza, and it frames his Lebanon posture around the objective of disarming Hezbollah.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has played down reports of a rift with Donald Trump after the United States president confirmed that he recently called the Israeli prime minister “f****ing crazy””
Netanyahu told CNBC that Hezbollah is "an Iranian proxy that puts all the citizens of Lebanon at gunpoint" and said, "we have to disarm Hezbollah and we have to demilitarise Lebanon" to save Lebanon and achieve a Lebanese-Israeli peace.
The same article says Hezbollah says it is fighting against Israel’s aims to expand into Lebanon and ethnically cleanse the south, and it adds that the Lebanese group argues its fighting is legitimate under the United Nations Charter.
It also reports that after Israel and the US attacked Iran without direct provocation on February 28, fighting spilled over into Lebanon, and it notes that two days into the conflict Hezbollah launched rockets against Israel as a response to daily Israeli ceasefire violations and the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Finally, the report says that since April, Lebanese and Israeli officials have held several rounds of talks in the US, but it states the negotiations have failed to produce a ceasefire or halt Israel’s systemic destruction of Lebanese towns.
