Israel was not informed of the United States plan to reach a temporary two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran until the deal was in its late stages of finalization, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
According to the WSJ report, Israeli officials were displeased with their exclusion from the decision-making process.
The extent of Israel’s involvement was a phone call US President Donald Trump made to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly before the ceasefire was announced, WSJ cited a US official as stating.
Mediators involved in the truce told WSJ that Israeli officials were unhappy with the terms of the agreement, including reports that Lebanon would be included in the deal.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who helped negotiate the ceasefire, initially announced that Lebanon would be included early on Wednesday.
Both Netanyahu and Trump disputed the claim, with Trump asserting during a conversation with PBS News reporter Liz Landers that Lebanon was not included due to Hezbollah.
Israeli officials decry deal as failure of war efforts
Israeli officials sharply criticized the ceasefire deal, Israel's exclusion from the truce discussions, and insulted Trump's willingness to back down from threats he made against the Iranian regime.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid decried the deal as a political disaster, asserting that Netanyahu “failed politically, failed strategically, and didn't meet a single one of the goals that he himself set.”
"Israel wasn't even part of the discussions when decisions were made concerning our national security,” Lapid lamented, adding that “it will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu created due to arrogance, negligence, and a lack of strategic planning.”
MK Zvika Fogel, the chair of the Knesset's National Security Committee and a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, claimed Trump "really wimped out" by taking the deal.
Tobias Siegel contributed to this report.