Trump Warns Netanyahu Against Renewed Iran War

Axios reported that US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday and warned him against returning to full-scale war with Iran.

“I said, ‘Bibi, you better be careful, or you will be on your own very soon’”, Trump told the outlet.

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter pushed back on reports of pressure from Washington, saying the conversations between the two leaders were cooperative and that their relationship remained very close.

Iran and Israel said on Monday they had halted attacks on each other after an appeal from Trump, although Tehran warned that it would resume hostilities if Israel continued to strike Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The latest escalation was the most direct confrontation between the two countries since April and threatened to derail Washington’s efforts to reach a peace deal and end more than three months of war.

The tensions were sparked by Iranian missile attacks on Israeli territory late on Sunday, which Tehran described as retaliation for Israeli strikes against Hezbollah on the outskirts of Beirut. Israel says those strikes followed Hezbollah attacks on Israeli territory. Israel then hit Iranian air defense systems and a petrochemical plant it said was used to produce ballistic missiles.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it responded with a strike aimed at a similar facility in Haifa, Israel. Authorities on both sides reported no deaths.

(reuters, max)