WASHINGTON — Donald Trump said on Saturday that Benjamin Netanyahu “knows who the boss is,” offering an unusually public characterisation of the power dynamic between Washington and Jerusalem as the two governments navigate the fragile aftermath of the Iran ceasefire.
“We get along very good,” Trump told reporters, in remarks reported by Al Jazeera, citing Axios. “He knows who the boss is” — a formulation Trump applied to himself. An unnamed Israeli official told Axios that Netanyahu could visit the White House within two weeks. No date has been confirmed by either government, and Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately comment.
Trump also disclosed on Saturday that US-Iran nuclear talks had been paused following the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The funeral, he said, had interrupted the diplomatic schedule. He did not specify when negotiations would resume or who had initiated the pause.
The pause comes roughly six weeks after the United States and Iran signed a memorandum on June 18 that ended the military conflict that began on February 28. That agreement sets timelines for the US to lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports and for Iran to restore commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The two sides have 60 days to negotiate the full terms; for Tehran, the central demand is the lifting of US sanctions. Britain and France have already dispatched mine-clearing ships to the Strait following the ceasefire.
Israel was not a party to the June 18 memorandum and has not publicly endorsed its terms. Netanyahu has previously pressed for guarantees that would permanently dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a condition Tehran has rejected outright. As Washington and Tehran reshape the Middle East’s diplomatic landscape, the question of how far Netanyahu can push back against terms already agreed between Trump and Iran is the central tension a potential White House visit would surface.
What Trump’s characterisation of the relationship will mean for those negotiations — and for any visit, if it occurs — has not been clarified by either government. No Israeli official has confirmed the prime minister’s schedule, and the White House has not announced a meeting date.
