22 minutes agoYou've completely lost” Trump attacks Netanyah to scale Lebanon
Periskopi(24 days ago)
(24 days ago)US President Donald Trump has reportedly launched a severe verbal attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah during a telephone conversation yesterday, Monday, over the escalation of Israeli military operations in Lebanon.
According to a report by Axios, who quotes two American officials and another source of knowledge of conversation, Trump called Netanyah “crazy” and accused him of ingratitude, while allegedly blocking an Israeli plan to attack Beirut.
The call took place several hours after Iran warned that Israel's continuing actions in Lebanon could lead to a failure of negotiations between Tehran and Washington.
According to the same sources, the US president claimed he contributed crucially to Netanyah's political survival, referring to the support he offered during his legal adventure of corruption cases.
As one American official reported, Trump reportedly told the Israeli prime minister:
You've gone completely mad. You'd be in jail if it wasn't for me. I'm trying to save your skin. Now everyone hates you. Everyone hates Israel because of this”.
Another source said Trump was the mad “” and at one point shouted: “What the hell are you doing?”
Concern for International Isolation
According to an American official, Trump acknowledged that Hezbollah continued to launch attacks on Israel and that Israel had the right to defend itself. However, he estimated that Netanyah had escalated operations disproportionally in recent days.
Washington reportedly expressed particular concern both over threats to shell Beirut and the expansion of ground operations in southern Lebanon.
At the same time, American officials have reportedly voiced concern over the high number of civilians killed in clashes, as well as attacks on buildings targeting individual Hezbollah commanders.
Out of strike plan in Beirut
An Israeli official told Axios that Israel no longer plans to attack Hezbollah's targets in Beirut.
However, Netanyahu said in a public statement following the call that he had informed Trump that Israel would launch attacks on the Lebanese capital if Hezbollah did not prevent attacks on Israeli targets.
Our “position remains unchanged”, the Israeli prime minister stressed.
However, according to a second American official, Trump actually “fully imposed his” position during the conversation. Netanyah, he claimed, eventually replied: “Okay, okay, just make sure everything is resolved”.
