During a nearly 90-minute meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed concern about the economic fallout of the war with Iran, particularly its potential impact on energy markets and the global economy, Axios reported, citing a senior Israeli official.
The meeting, which took place on Tuesday, is the first between Trump and Netanyahu since the outbreak of the war on February 28, 2026, as Iran topped the agenda of the talks, at a time when Washington continues to seek an agreement with Tehran, in parallel with studying more radical military options.
Three options offered
According to the Israeli official, the two sides discussed three main tracks of dealing with Iran, including:
Reaching a diplomatic agreement.
Continue the naval blockade and tighten economic pressures.
Resuming and intensifying military strikes.
And U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are continuing negotiations with Iran, the official said, despite continuing substantive differences between the two sides.
He stressed that the meeting was not aimed at weighting a particular option, but rather explicitly addressed the advantages and implications of each possible scenario.
Netanyahu: The economic blockade must continue
And the report indicated that Netanyahu expressed great skepticism about the possibility of reaching a final agreement with Tehran, calling for continued economic pressure on it through the naval blockade and additional measures.
According to the source, Netanyahu considered that Iran is trying to use its influence over the Strait of Hormuz as a pressure card to obtain concessions from the United States, stressing that the continuation of the blockade will increase financial pressure on Tehran.
And Trump has expressed concern that escalating the conflict could lead to widespread disruptions in the global economy and energy markets.
field escalation
Hours after the meeting, Iran reportedly fired missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan, the first such attack since Trump suspended U.S. strikes on Iran last Friday.
Trump later told Fox News that the United States would respond "forcefully" to the attack, while Netanyahu told the U.S. president that Israel would respond immediately and decisively if it came under any Iranian attack.
An assessment of Iran's domestic situation
The report quoted the Israeli official as saying that there is a discrepancy within the Iranian leadership between officials who fear economic collapse and more hardline ones who believe that the regime is able to survive as long as it retains its military capabilities and popular base.
And there are signs of economic pressure inside Iran, including fuel and diesel shortages, queues at gas stations and limited protests linked to living conditions.
The official also claimed that Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, takes hardline positions in major decisions, but said there was no confirmed information about the extent of his personal involvement in issuing the latest directives.
Syria on the table
And Netanyahu showed Trump a map that he said showed Turkey-controlled areas in Syria were about fifty times larger than areas controlled by Israel.
According to the Israeli account, a US official responded that the Turkish military presence in northern Syria is carried out with the consent of the current Syrian government, unlike the Israeli presence in southern Syria.
And Netanyahu said that Israel would continue its presence in the buffer zone in southern Syria as long as it considered that there was a threat from armed groups.
Saudi nuclear deal
The meeting also dealt with the draft US-Saudi nuclear agreement, where Trump explained that he views the agreement within a broader context related to the possibility of normalizing relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The Israeli official indicated that Tel Aviv would deal with the nuclear file if real progress was made on the path of normalization.
Netanyahu proposes ending US military aid
And in a remarkable move, the Israeli official revealed that Netanyahu had told Trump, his deputy J.D. Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff that he wanted to end dependence on U.S. military aid within a decade.
He proposed negotiating a new memorandum of understanding that would allow Israel to achieve greater independence in the defense industry, including the development of a domestic fighter within the next decade in anticipation of a possible halt in its supply of F-35s and other advanced U.S. weapons.
And the proposal includes a package of $16 billion in direct military aid, $5 billion to $10 billion for missile defense systems development, and $16 billion for a joint fund for research and development of new weapons systems.
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