Trump Declares Israel Has ‘No Choice’ But to Accept Any Iran Deal He Makes: ‘I Call the Shots’
President Donald Trump said Israel has “no choice” but to accept whatever peace deal he strikes with Iran during an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday.
The president said Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu — his longtime ally and friend — has no say in the matter, either.
“I call the shots. I call all the shots,” Trump told FT. “[Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”
That interview came soon after Iran hit Israel with missiles for the first time since the fragile ceasefire has been in place.
Axios reporter Barak Ravid posted to X that Trump told him “I am going to call Netanyahu right now and tell him not to strike back.”
Trump also lamented to Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst that “this takes place” — meaning the missile attacks — right as a deal is on the verge of being agreed to. The president told Yingst he believed a deal could happen as soon as Monday.
As I was speaking with the president, out the window I could see some incoming missiles headed toward the northern part of this country. The IDF says they were down the majority of incoming fire, but the president telling Fox News it is certainly not going to help negotiations.
I asked him if he had a message for the Iranian regime. He said, “What I would suggest to Iran, you’ve shot your missiles. That’s enough. Get back to the table and make a deal.”
Trump told FT the strikes on Israel will not sabotage any deal progress he’s made.
“It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump said. “We’ll see how it ends up. But [the strikes] 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.”
Trump’s comments about Israel and Netanyahu come after many critics have claimed Israel forced the U.S. to go to war against Iran. For example, Tucker Carlson claimed Israel was “in charge” of the U.S., and that the war was being “waged” strictly on behalf Israel; Megyn Kelly similarly argued American troops had died in “Israel’s war” against Iran.
The president has scoffed at those claims.
“If anything, I might’ve forced Israel’s hand,” Trump said in March.
Watch Yingst’s report above.
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