WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump admitted calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu crazy in an expletive-filled phone call about the fighting in Lebanon as the United States tried to negotiate an end to hostilities with Iran.
In an interview broadcast on Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he had called the longtime Israeli leader “crazy” and accused him of ingratitude, paraphrasing a report on the website Axios.
“Yes, I did,” Trump said on the “Pod Force One” podcast. “I wouldn’t say I was angry. I was a little bothered by his constant fights with Lebanon, you know?”
Trump went on to say that he and Netanyahu get along very well.
According to the Axios report, which cited an unnamed U.S. official, Trump told Netanyahu in a call on Monday: “You’re crazy as hell… You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your skin. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
Trump said in the interview: “At one point I said, Bibi, we have to stop this. We have to stop this.”
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Iran has said it will not accept a deal with the United States to end the war started by Trump and Netanyahu in late February unless the ceasefire also covers Lebanon, a country Israel invaded in March in pursuit of the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group, which has carried out cross-border attacks in support of Tehran.
Hostilities continued despite a US-brokered deal announced on Monday that saw Israel pull back on attacks on Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and the Iran-backed group halt cross-border attacks.
Israeli drone strikes killed at least six people in southern Lebanon and hit a car south of Beirut on Wednesday, according to Lebanese security sources. Israel claimed to have intercepted a hostile aircraft, likely fired by Hezbollah.
Trump bristled when asked whether Netanyahu had “tricked” him into attacking Iran, saying his critics were “the enemy.”
