Iran Blocks Hormuz Again After Trump-Netanyahu's Heated Call: Reports | Vantage | Firstpost | 4K

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Donald Trump loves winning wars, or at least the image of ending them.

[00:00:04]Ceasefires rebranded as victory, peace talks marketed as power and resolve. But his ally Benjamin Netanyahu, he has no desire to stop. Definitely not under the current terms. And right now, that difference is tearing open one of the most powerful political partnerships in modern geopolitics.

[00:00:24]And here's why I'm saying this. On Tuesday, the US president held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. And according to reports, the discussion was heated. Netanyahu's hair was on fire. These are not my words.

[00:00:38]This is what a report by Axis says about the Israeli prime minister's reaction after that phone call. And the reason behind this, Trump reportedly told Netanyahu that mediators Qatar and Pakistan are working on a letter of intent that both Washington and Thran would sign to formally end the war. This would give way for a 30-day period of talks that would focus on the core issues around the war like Iran's nuclear program and the opening of the Straight of Hormuz, a critical waterway that used to handle a fifth of the world's oil and gas supplies.

[00:01:14]Iran is meanwhile showing defiance. Its Supreme Leader Moshtabak Kame has reportedly ordered that the country's near weaponsgrade uranium must not be sent abroad. The demand was kept by the US in its peace plan.

[00:01:29]Pakistan has stepped up diplomatic efforts. Its interior minister is visiting Thran right now to ace in peace talks between the United States and Iran. And Netanyahu was not happy with this. He reportedly disagreed with Trump's strategy. He told Trump that dealing the expected attacks was a mistake. He was referring to what Trump had said earlier on Sunday. Over the weekend, the US president said that he was likely to move forward with new targeted attacks on Iran, an operation that was expected to get a new name, Operation Sledgehammer. But roughly 24 hours later, he sheld the plan. And the reason given was this. Strikes have been called off at the request of allies in the Gulf. They knew I was getting ready to attack. I didn't tell them. I'd never tell anybody when.

[00:02:15]>> You're a constant contact.

[00:02:16]>> I never tell anybody when, but but they knew that we were very close. I would say we were I was an hour away from making the decision to go today.

[00:02:26]And we would probably not be talking about a beautiful ballroom today. We'd be talking about that. And uh no, we were I had made the decision.

[00:02:37]>> And then there's the toned down rhetoric. He says he wants to end the war quickly. He wants to appear strong by launching pressure on Iran, but also wants to look like the leader who can end the conflict before it becomes politically and economically damaging for the United States.

[00:02:53]>> We'd have to open the straight. That would open immediately. So, we're going to give this one shot. I'm in no hurry.

[00:02:58]You never think, oh, the midterms I'm in a hurry. I'm in no hurry. I just uh ideally I'd like to see few people killed as opposed to a lot. We can do it either way, but but I'd like to see few people killed.

[00:03:11]>> This has reportedly frustrated Netanyahu, who has long advocated for a more aggressive approach in dealing with Thran. He believes that any delay only benefits the Iranians, so the division is clear. Trump wants to reach a deal, but Netanyahu, on the other hand, is expecting a long continued war. The reports of Rift are not new. A few weeks after the war broke out, there were reports that said that it was Netanyahu who dragged the United States into this conflict. The Israeli prime minister himself had come to his defense.

[00:03:42]>> And I want to close these opening remarks with one other fake news, and that is that Israel somehow dragged the US into a conflict with Iran.

[00:03:52]Does anyone really think that someone can tell President Trump what to do?

[00:03:57]Come on.

[00:03:59]Netanyahui has also tried to blow off the steam, hailing his ties with Trump and making statements like he is the leader and his ally. Trump meanwhile has tried to assert dominance in every way possible. Speaking to reporters after that reported phone call, he suggested that he is in the driver's seat and that he made and then he made a bizarre wish.

[00:04:20]Listen to this.

[00:04:21]>> Prime Minister Netanyahu about Iran and how long to to hold off on strike.

[00:04:25]>> It's fine. He'll do whatever I want him to do. He's very very good man. Uh he'll do whatever I want him to do and he's a he's a great guy to me. He's a great guy. Don't forget he was a wartime prime minister and he's not treated right in Israel in my opinion. I'm right now at 99% in Israel. I could run for prime minister. So maybe after I do this I'll go to Israel, run for prime minister. I had a poll this morning. I'm 99%.

[00:04:54]So that's good. But uh no, he's a wartime prime minister and I just don't think they treat him well.

[00:05:02]>> Trump has already told Netanyahu off publicly. When Israel bombed Iran's gas fields, Trump said he had explic explicitly told Netanyahu not to do that. Even when the current ceasefire was announced on the 8th of April, Trump initially sided with Netanyahu, agreeing that Lebanon was excluded. But then he reversed course, included Lebanon in the ceasefire, and made Israel follow suit.

[00:05:25]>> They've agreed to an additional three weeks of uh I guess no firing ceasefire.

[00:05:32]No more firing. Let's see. We hope that happens. Not going to happen between them, but they do have Hezbollah to think about.

[00:05:41]>> Now, here's what you need to know.

[00:05:42]Neither man is acting purely on principle. Both have deeply personal reasons for wanting what they want.

[00:05:49]Trump needs a win. Iran has already shown the United States that it can fight back. Strikes on the Gulf bases, a close rate of Hormuz, global economic shock wave. According to reports, US military officials had flagged the risk of Iran's retaliation and the closure of Hormuz. But Netanyahu and several other US officials, including Secretary of War Pete Hexath, downplayed the risk, arguing that Iran's revolutionary guards were overrated. It seems they were wrong on every account. And now Trump needs a deal before the economic and political damage lands squarely on American soil.

[00:06:24]Netanyahu has his own calculations.

[00:06:27]Analysts, opposition figures, and protesters in Israel have long argued that he benefits from staying at war. It delays elections. It holds his fragile coalition together. It keeps his corruption trials buried beneath the headlines. And that coalition is already fracturing over military conscription exemptions for ultraorththodox communities. The Knesset has voted to advance a bill to dissolve itself. Early elections could be months away. A war that ends without Israel getting what it wants isn't just a foreign policy failure for Netanyahu. It could be a political earthquake. And here's where we land. Trump, the self-styled dealmaker, is chasing a diplomatic legacy before the economic cost of this war becomes his problem. Netanyahu, the self-style strategist, is convinced that peace on these terms is just surrender with better branding. Two allies on the single biggest question in West Asia are pulling in opposite directions.

[00:07:29]Wars have a way of exposing the difference between starting a fire and deciding how long it should burn. At the start of this conflict, Trump and Netanyahu look like two leaders marching in lock step. Now they look like two men pulling the same war in opposite directions. And that is the contradiction at the heart of maximum pressure. Starting a war is easy.

[00:07:51]Deciding when to stop it is where alliances begin to crack. Eventually, someone has to decide what enough looks like. But right now, Trump and Netanyahu, the two leaders who started this war, seem to have very different answers for that.

[00:08:08]Our next story is about one of the most relentless manhunts in modern times.

[00:08:12]After the horrors of October 7, 2023, Israel did not just launch a war in Gaza. It had launched a mission of retribution. A secretive Israeli task force was formed and armed with facial recognition, cell phone data, AI powered surveillance to track down every single person linked to the attacks. Now, over a year after the Gaza war ended in ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, the hunt is still on. Not only is it on, it is expanding. Allow me to explain. Let me take you back to October 7, 2023.

[00:08:49]Among the many videos that surfaced on that fateful day, there was one particular video that disturbed many.

[00:08:58]It was of an Israeli woman screaming, "Don't kill me." as she was hauled away on a motorcycle by Hamas militants. She was among those assaulted at the desert music festival which Hamas had stormed.

[00:09:10]Her name is Noah Argammani and she spent 245 days in captivity in Gaza. After release, the two men seen in the video were hunted, tracked down, and killed by Israeli intelligence officials.

[00:09:25]And just like that, the men were crossed off a list of thousands of names, kept by the Israeli task force that was created for one job, kill or capture all who planned or joined the October 7th attack. According to reports, hundreds have been struck from that list. In what is being called one of the most personal and highly technical targeting campaigns in the entire history of warfare, reports say for Israel, no participant was too small, no target was too far, not even the man who drove a tractor through the border fence that day.

[00:10:00]Two years after the act, the driver was identified, located, and reportedly blown up in an air strike in Gaza.

[00:10:06]Israel's campaign reportedly spans the rank and file of Hamas's top leaders.

[00:10:11]The most recent seems to be the killing of Ezin Al-Had. He was killed last week.

[00:10:17]Al-Had was one of the last living senior militants from the group's military leadership that planned the October 7th attacks. He had been Hamas's military commander in Gaza since 2025.

[00:10:29]Now to the question of how Israel has been able to track down so many Hamas operatives. Remember, the Israeli Defense Forces possesses one of the world's most technologically advanced and sophisticated militaries. It is famous for integrating cuttingedge technologies like artificial intelligence, cloud infrastructure, autonomous systems.

[00:10:51]So, the Hamas operatives who videotaped the October 7 deeds on phones or GoPro cameras, or even those who went back home to brag, learned to lay the degree of Israel's surveillance acumen and their desire for retribution.

[00:11:05]Israeli military intelligence and its internal security service, the Shinbet, reportedly pour over the hundreds of videos posted on social media for proof.

[00:11:15]They run the images through facial recognition programs. They sift for names. They comb through intercepted phone calls. They view location data from cell tower logs and they interrogate Gazen detainees to uncover who did what. On the 12th of April, Hamas platoon commander Ali Shami Muhammad Shakra whom Israel's military alleges joined the deadly assault on the music festival and captured four hostages was killed. Before that, the Israeli force killed a killed an Islamic jihad operative. Israel's retribution has carried on despite its ceasefire with Hamas.

[00:11:50]What does Hamas say? They call Israel's campaign nothing but an extension of its extrajudicial executions.

[00:11:59]Currently, there are hundreds of Gazins charged with participating in October 7th attacks. In Israel's custody, they are awaiting trial. The Israeli parliament recently passed a bill to establish a special military tribunal for their hearings. As the world watched in horror what happened on the 7th of October 2023, serious questions were being asked of Israel security system.

[00:12:22]How did they fail to see it coming? The attacks were a devastating intelligence and operational failure for Israel security establishment. It prompted internal admissions of failure from top agencies like the Shinbet.

[00:12:35]In the aftermath, Israeli agents reportedly approached the head of the Shinbed to set up a task force to hunt down the Hamas attackers. They named it NI. It is a Hebrew acronym for the words, "The eternal one of Israel doesn't lie." The name was first used by a band of World War I era Jewish spies.

[00:12:55]Israel's campaign centered in Gaza, but also struck Hamas leaders in Lebanon and Iran. It echoes Israel eliminating a dozen or so Palestinians responsible for the killing of 11 athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

[00:13:12]And since the ceasefire in Gaza, the task force has been reduced to a handful of operatives who track targets and then pass along the information to the military top brass. Which brings us to the legality of what this task force is doing. You see, there are few legal limits for killing suspects in wartime.

[00:13:30]There are concerns that civilians suspected of crimes should be captured and prosecuted.

[00:13:37]It's the extrajudicial killing of civilians that constitutes as war crime.

[00:13:40]And that is the challenge in all of this. Who counts as a combatant and who counts as a civilian? Israel's military says the international law allows it to attack even civilians who participate in hostilities. But determining who belongs on the list can take days, months and years depending on the case.

[00:13:59]Of course, already the government under Benjamin Netanyao has faced enormous pressure from the Israeli public. The families of the victims in the Israeli parliament to ensure accountability. And this is happening while Israel remains locked in conflict on multiple fronts.

[00:14:14]From Hezbollah and Lebanon to its war with Iran, many Israelis want a closing of the circle after the 7th of October.

[00:14:21]But many argue more debts will not bring any closure. It will just feed this vicious cycle.

[00:14:30]Have you ever bought something expensive only for it to break down almost immediately? A brand new phone that starts freezing or a new car that keeps going back to the garage.

[00:14:41]Now imagine that. Except the product costs around $110 million.

[00:14:47]And it is supposed to be among the most advanced fighter jets on Earth. I'm talking about the F-35 jet. It is the same fighter aircraft that Washington calls the future of air warfare that Trump loves to sell to his allies and that is supposed to hide from enemies.

[00:15:03]But lately, it cannot seem to hide from its own problems. A new report is out and it claims two F-35 jets have been stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These jets belong to the United Kingdom and they were being flown from the United States to Britain but they never reached their intended destination. The jets reportedly developed technical problems mid-flight and they were forced to land in the Azor. This is a small group of Portuguese islands located in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands are often used as a transit stop especially for long military flights crossing the Atlantic. But for these British F-35s, they did not become a stopping point.

[00:15:43]These islands became a parking spot because they've been stuck there for nearly two months.

[00:15:50]The world's most advanced stealth fighter cannot complete its own delivery flight. It is stranded. And this is not the first time. The UK's F-35 fleet has a history of this. Last year, a British F-35 got stuck in Kerala. It is a southern state in India. The plane suffered a technical glitch while operating from HMS Prince of Wales. It is a British aircraft carrier that was then deployed in the Arabian Sea. The jet was grounded for over 5 weeks and very quickly it became an internet celebrity. The Kerala tourism even posted an AI generated image showing the fighter jet parked under palm trees.

[00:16:28]Of course, social media users also joined in. Some joke that Britain should return the Coeno diamond as payment. A fair price, some would say. Then just days later, it happened again. This time in Japan. Another British F-35 made an emergency landing during joint drills.

[00:16:46]This was after a technical malfunction.

[00:16:49]Kerala, Japan, the Azor. At some point, this stops being bad luck and it starts becoming a pattern. But why does this aircraft matter so much? Because the F-35 is not just any fighter jet. It is supposed to be the crown jewel of American air power. The F-35 Lightning 2 is a stealth fighter aircraft. It is built by American defense company Loheed Martin and the jet is designed to evade radar, share battlefield data in real time, carry precision missiles, and operate inside heavily defended airspace. The version used by Britain is called the F-35B. It can land vertically almost like a helicopter.

[00:17:31]That is why Britain uses it on aircraft carriers. So on paper, it sounds like the perfect war machine. A stealth fighter, a flying supercomputer, and a command center, all combined into one aircraft. In practice, it spends a lot of time in repair hangers. Britain's own National Audit Office raised serious concerns last year. The UK's F-35 fleet could only perform about a third of its required missions. And why is that so?

[00:17:59]Because of shortage of spare parts, not enough engineers, and high corrosion rates at sea. And it is not just Britain. In fact, even within the United States, the availability of F-35 aircraft in 2024 was just 50%.

[00:18:14]Half the fleet unavailable for the world's most powerful military. And yet this is the same aircraft Washington continues to push across the world. More than 20 countries now operate or have ordered F-35. This includes Britain, Japan, Israel, Italy, Australia, Norway, and South Korea. But some like Spain and Switzerland, they are now having second thoughts because buying the F-35 does not just mean buying a fighter jet. It also means buying dependence on Washington. The software, the spare parts, the maintenance, the upgrades, all of it under American control. So, countries are asking a very basic question.

[00:18:57]Are we buying a fighter jet or are we renting access to one? And this is where Donald Trump enters the story.

[00:19:06]Trump has used the F-35 as a geopolitical tool. He has pushed it aggressively across the world from West Asia to the Indopacific as a symbol of American power. But here is the irony.

[00:19:17]The United States keeps selling the world a jet that keeps struggling to stay out of repair hangers. And then there is this. Iran claims its air defense systems have tracked and even shot down an F-35 jet recently. These claims were never confirmed by the United States.

[00:19:35]But even that allegation is damaging because the entire selling point of the F-35 is that it is supposed to be very hard to detect.

[00:19:44]If Thran can even credibly claim to have shot one down, the mystique has already broken and clearly Washington knows the problems are real. It has already approved nearly $1 billion in new upgrades.

[00:19:58]So, is the F-35 the future of air warfare? Or is it the world's most expensive subscription service? One that keeps asking for more money and keeps finding new ways to let you down.

[00:20:10]Because a stealth jet may be designed to disappear from radar, but when it keeps breaking down around the world and keep showing up stranded on runways, its problems are difficult to hide. The world moves fast. Power shifts.

[00:20:26]unexpected developments, changing alliances. Every day brings a new headline. But headlines are only the beginning. Because behind every story, there is context. There are consequences and there are questions worth asking.

[00:20:45]Find the answers. Understand the story.

[00:20:48]Take on the world.

[00:20:51]This is Himorya for First Post Vantage.