Washington May Be Learning to Live with Iran, Ukraine and Israel
President Donald Trump met with both President Volodymyr Zelenski of Ukraine and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday in private sessions lacking the usual fanfare, photo ops and press releases. The men were in town to participate in the funeral services for recently departed Senator Lindsey Graham, who was a great friend of and might be described as a co-belligerent with both nations!
As of now, little is known regarding exactly what went on during the closed-door meetings, though there will presumably be leaks or actual revelations of what went on in the next few days. The sessions included key administration players like Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as well as Chief Negotiator Steve Witkoff and several congressmen, but both Trump and Netanyahu were reportedly pleased by the result.
The meeting was particularly important due to the perception that the US is looking for a formula to withdraw from the unsuccessful Iran conflict while also claiming some kind of victory as midterm elections are looming in which the downside of the unpopular war will weigh heavily. And the Graham funeral provided an excellent opportunity for a top-level meeting to discuss a course of action relating to the two wars that Trump got involved in but has failed to “win.”
It has also been observed that the Ukrainian and Israeli leaders have been in contact of late and the presumption is that they are united in their desire to convince an increasingly reluctant Trump that their wars against Iran and Russia are also America’s wars, albeit less due to any immediate and actual threat to the US and more due to desire to establish a commitment to what is being packaged as common values and interests against nations that are basically adversaries. If Netanyahu and Zelensky are successful in that effort, they would have expected to bring about a convergence in the perception of the two conflicts with the United States becoming convinced that it was confronting a hostile Iran and Russia. That would make it firmly committed to its principal role as a weapons supplier, financial resource and political cover provider.
Trita Parsi of Responsible Statecraft has described what is developing: “As Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky arrives in Washington, much indicates that he is no longer merely trying to draw greater American support into its war against Russia. Increasingly, it appears to be pursuing something far more consequential: merging the Ukraine war with the US-Iran conflict into a single strategic theater. The distinction matters. If the two wars become one, Ukraine ceases to be merely a recipient of American military assistance and instead becomes a direct participant in Washington’s war with Tehran. By the same token, the United States would no longer simply be Ukraine’s principal arms supplier. It would become an active belligerent against Russia through a conflict that stretches from the Black Sea to the Caspian. For Kyiv, this would represent the strategic breakthrough it has sought since Russia’s invasion in 2022.” And one might add that bringing in a Russian dimension would take pressure off of Israel by challenging claims that Iran is little more than a war initiated by and for Israel.
After the talks concluded, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dutifully described the exchanges during his eighth meeting with Trump as “one of the best conversations” he’s ever had with the US president. He elaborated how “It was a meeting with full cooperation, with mutual support, with understanding on the joint goal that Iran won’t have nuclear weapons, and also other goals. It was one of the best conversations I’ve had with our friend, US President Trump.” Trump agreed that the exchanges had been positive and friction free, emphasizing that there was complete agreement on the necessity to prevent Iranian development of a nuclear weapon. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also described the talks as “good and productive.”
Issues that had been expected to be discussed like the claimed Israeli-produced intelligence to justify US strikes on a nuclear site Pickaxe Mountain, known as Kolang Kouh in Iran, did not apparently come up, or at least they were not cited in the comments made to the media. Netanyahu’s press and communications officer Tzipi Hotovely asserted that “There is no truth in the claim that Israel is pushing the US in a certain direction on the Iran issue. The Prime Minister is not telling the US President what to do and is not pushing him in any direction. Both sides want to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons. There are many ways to achieve this goal.” Hotovely also told reporters that Trump had been expected to ask for Israel to withdraw from the areas IDF soldiers are occupying in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, not to mention its support of settler attacks in nominally Palestinian controlled areas and Jerusalem, but he did not do so.
Trump has remained silent about Israel’s constant violations of the US-backed ceasefire deal in Gaza and there is every indication that he will continue to do so. Latest reports indicate that the Israeli military has killed more than 1,200 Palestinians since the agreement was signed in October 2025, some of whom have been American citizens which would have merited some kind of response. Attacks on Christian places of worship have also been noted with nothing coming out of the mouth of Christian Zionist US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who recently asserted that there would be no United States today but for the prior existence of Israel. He has also declared that Israel is entitled to all the land it would like to take over in the Middle East.
So where is this all going? Well, does anyone really think that a late night after normal sessions Congressional move on the very night after the funeral for war-monger Lindsey Graham and the appearance of Netanyahu and Zelensky at the White House and on Capitol Hill to increase sanctions on Russia as well as on Iran was just a coincidence? The Hill reports how “The Senate, in a rare bipartisan vote Tuesday night, advanced a bill that would impose harsher sanctions on Russia and buyers of Russian oil and gas than the US has previously enforced and extend existing sanctions on Iran, aiming to economically squeeze the two countries amid ongoing military conflicts. The bill, named for its co-author, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), has had strong backing from members in both parties for over a year as a way to further penalize Russia over its war in Ukraine. President Trump only recently gave the green light to a version of the legislation, and requested that it include increased sanctions on Iran. It advanced on an 86-12 vote…” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chair of the Armed Services Committee, spoke on the Senate floor in support of the legislation earlier in the evening. “If we’ve learned anything about the Russian despot Vladimir Putin over the course of this war, it’s that the slaughter of civilians and even his own Russian troops gives him no pause,” Wicker said. “He disregards human life. But he does prize the strength of his war machine, and for this, Putin relies on his energy sales and that’s what we’re getting to with this bill.”
Ironic isn’t it? The US which kills 163 schoolgirls and teachers in Iran using double tap weapons to make sure that all of them die is preaching to the world about Russian alleged immorality in war while its “best friend” and “closest ally” Israel slaughters tens or possibly even hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in what nearly the entire world except Washington views as a genocide. It makes one want to laugh, or cry, but for better or worse Trump has again been outmaneuvered by the leaders of Israel and Ukraine and America is now de facto engaged in wars in both Eurasia and the Middle East.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is https://councilforthenationalinterest.org address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.