President Donald Trump said he was frustrated that Israel’s operations against Hezbollah were complicating Iran talks, while insisting his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains strong.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump confirmed Wednesday that he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a tense phone call earlier this week, saying Israel’s continued fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon had complicated efforts to negotiate an end to the Iran war.
Trump addressed the call during an interview on The New York Post’s “Pod Force One,” acknowledging that he had been “a little bit perturbed” with Netanyahu as U.S. officials worked to advance peace talks with Iran. The president confirmed an earlier report that he had described Netanyahu as “crazy” during the Monday conversation, which included expletives.
Despite the dispute, Trump said his relationship with Netanyahu remains strong and pointed to their shared experience leading countries during wartime.
“We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Trump said.
The exchange underscored growing pressure on Trump to bring the Iran conflict to a close as elevated energy prices, economic uncertainty and disruptions to global commerce weigh on Republicans ahead of the midterm elections.
Trump did not commit to a timeline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which remains blocked to shipments of oil and natural gas. Asked whether the closure could last through the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7, Trump said it was possible but unlikely.
“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be (closed through Labor Day), but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” Trump said.
Trump has said Iran must halt any efforts that could lead to a nuclear weapon and that the strait must reopen for energy shipments.
The president also said Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his late father, is “involved” in peace talks aimed at ending the war.
“They have a lot of respect for him,” Trump said.
Trump said Khamenei is not doing well because of injuries sustained in an airstrike, but added that “they say he’s giving approval because that’s the way it has been for a long, long time.” Khamenei’s father was killed during U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran at the end of March.
The prospects for a lasting ceasefire remained uncertain as fighting continued in Lebanon. On Wednesday, an Israeli strike hit a car on a busy highway south of Beirut, just hours before a second day of talks between Lebanon and Israel was scheduled to begin in Washington.
The strike in Khaldeh came without warning. It was not immediately clear whether the person targeted had been killed. Israel often says its drone strikes in Lebanon target members of Hezbollah.
Israel and Lebanon had reached a U.S.-brokered agreement Monday under which Israel would not strike Beirut’s southern suburbs and Hezbollah would halt attacks on northern Israel. The agreement came hours after Israel said it planned to launch strikes across densely populated neighborhoods near the Lebanese capital, which would have marked the most intense attacks since a nominal ceasefire took effect April 17.
The State Department said progress was made during the first day of talks Tuesday. Lebanon is seeking to broaden the ceasefire into a comprehensive nationwide agreement. Israel is demanding Hezbollah’s immediate disarmament before it ends military operations in Lebanon and withdraws troops from dozens of villages and towns.
Soon after the Khaldeh strike, the Israeli military said it intercepted what it described as a hostile aircraft arriving from southern Lebanon, though it did not immediately blame Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not claimed a cross-border attack since the agreement was reached.
Israeli strikes continued across southern Lebanon, particularly around the heavily damaged cities of Tyre and Nabatiyeh. Overnight strikes near Tyre killed four Syrians and two Palestinians.
Israel also warned Christian neighborhoods in the coastal city of Tyre that Hezbollah members were present there. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims had fled to those areas in recent days because they had largely been spared from aerial bombardment along the Mediterranean coast.
After the warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian district of Tyre in an effort to prevent Israeli strikes and demonstrate that Hezbollah did not have an armed presence in the area.
Israel invaded southern Lebanon days after the latest war began March 2, when Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran. Israeli forces have moved deeper into Lebanon over the past week as Hezbollah has continued claiming rocket and drone attacks.
The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon and displaced 1.2 million. Netanyahu’s office said at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.
Israel’s military announced late Monday that one soldier had been killed in southern Lebanon. Seven additional soldiers were wounded in the same incident, three of them severely.
Hezbollah’s use of hard-to-detect fiber-optic drones has created new challenges for Israeli forces, which have struggled to counter the weapons during the fighting.
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