Is there a strain growing between US and Israel on Iran war strategy?

US President Donald Trump said he had told Israel not to repeat its attacks on Iranian natural gas infrastructure as tit-for-tat strikes on energy plants sent energy prices spiraling, sharply escalating the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Trump's comment came amid leaping energy prices after Iran responded to an Israeli attack on a major gas field by hitting Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City, which processes around a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas, causing damage that will take years to repair.

Trump, politically vulnerable to rising fuel prices among his core voters, has lashed out at allies who have responded cautiously to his demands that they help secure the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for around a fifth of the world's oil.

The Israeli offensive has proved quite the flashpoint across the region and Laura Blumenfeld, an Anderson Scholar and Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Europe, told CGTN Europe it highlighted the potential pitfalls and benefits for the US and Israel concerning their strategies.

"What you're looking at is a difference between a regional agenda and a global agenda," said Blumenfeld.

"Where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit. Israel sits in the Middle East, and for them, the concern is security, and they feel like any strike, any degradation of Iran's capabilities, whether they're military or economic, is a plus for them. 

"The United States is a global power. They sit far away, and the security threat isn't quite as imminent, and so they're more focused on the economic fall-out from this war. They're thinking about shipping in the Gulf and also their Gulf allies who are being pummeled in retaliatory strikes by Iran. 

"The most important thing we see is a difference between Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu and Trump and what they promised their voters. Trump promised a golden era, in slang we call oil 'black gold', and voters are going to the gas pumps and seeing the prices risen by 30% and who knows where they'll go from here.

"Netanyahu, by contrast, is known as Mr Security. He promised his voters security, and he's definitely up against it after the October 7th attack in 2023, where he needs to prove himself in terms of a security leader, and therefore he's willing to take more risks on the battlefield."

US and Israel relations

So does Israel's bombing of Iran's major gas field suggest gaps in coordination of strategy and war aims between the main protagonists?

Blumenfeld added: "I think it's more of a divergence in messaging, not mission. If Trump says it didn't happen, it didn't happen because it's obviously not the way he wants to project power in the Middle East. 

"He wants to be seen as keeping the Gulf allies under the American security umbrella and these strikes on across the Gulf, Iran is destroying their energy infrastructure. 

"So I think it's really important for Trump to message that he wasn't a part of that or he had no knowledge. But in terms of their aims, I don't see much of a divergence."