The conversation took place shortly after Iran’s ballistic missile attacks on northern Israel tonight in support of Hezbollah, after the IDF struck a stronghold of the Iran-backed terror group in Beirut. Trump reportedly spoke with Netanyahu about an hour ago, after telling the Axios news site he would call the premier to tell him not to retaliate against Iran as Washington aims for a deal with the country.
Trump tells the FT that Iran’s strikes have not changed his intent to reach a diplomatic solution with Iran, saying: “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal… We’ll see how it ends up. But they [the missile strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all. It’s one of those things that’s been going for 3,000 years, or 47 years, depending on how you count.”
The FT says Trump didn’t indicate a deal with Iran was imminent, though the president told Fox News earlier tonight that he was days away from reaching an agreement before the attacks took place.
“I think the deal is going on,” Trump says. “We’ll see what happens,” he adds, saying “The deal may make it on its own merit, or not, but this will not have any effect on it.”
Trump reiterates comments he made earlier today that he would turn to military force if a deal is not reached, saying: “[Not reaching a deal] means [one of] two things… Number one, it would mean that possibly we would go in and take care of the rest of the place that we didn’t take care of militarily. Or it would just mean that we would keep the [US naval] blockade on Iran, because the blockade has been probably more powerful than any attack that was ever made on that country.
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