Trump admits calling Netanyahu ‘crazy’, says Israel is complicating peace talks with Iran

BEIRUT (AP) — President Donald Trump admitted to criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “crazy” in an expletive-laced phone call, saying he was “a little disturbed” that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon was holding back peace talks with Iran.

READ MORE: Iran strikes Kuwait’s main airport, leaves 1 dead as ceasefire tested again

But even as the US president acknowledged the tensions in an interview published Wednesday, he insisted that his relationship with Netanyahu was strong and that they were bonded, in part because they are both “wartime” leaders.

“We worked very well together. I really like Bibi. And I work very well with him,” Trump told the New York Post’s “Pod Force One.”

In an interview on US business news channel CNBC, Netanyahu responded that he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements”, but have “common goals” and “agree on the essentials”.

“He respects me. I respect him. We always find a way to resolve our differences,” the prime minister said.

READ MORE: Iranian Reports: Iran Stops Talking to Mediators on Israel’s Hezbollah Fight in Lebanon

The president’s comments on Monday’s call signal the growing pressure he faces to resolve the war in Iran, as rising energy prices and economic uncertainty threaten Republican prospects in the midterm elections and hamper global trade.

Talks have dragged on for weeks as mediators seek to extend a fragile ceasefire into a more lasting truce. Negotiations are further strained by the escalating war between Israel and the Iranian-backed militia in Lebanon. The conflicts have become increasingly intertwined, with Iran insisting that any potential truce in the war there must also ease fighting in Lebanon.

Trump does not commit to a timetable for ending the war in Iran

Trump has remained evasive on the timetable for resolving the Iran conflict, saying the Strait of Hormuz could remain blocked until Labor Day on September 7. He insisted that Iran end any efforts that could lead to a nuclear weapon and that the strait be reopened to shipments of oil and natural gas.

“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be (closed until Labor Day), but I think it’s unlikely. I think we’ll get it. I think it will resolve itself pretty quickly,” Trump said.

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his late father, is “involved” in the peace talks, Trump added.

“They have a lot of respect for him,” the president said in the interview.

Trump said Khamenei was not doing well due to injuries sustained in an airstrike, but “they say he’s giving his approval because it’s been like that for a long, long time.” Khamenei’s father was killed in an airstrike when the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Meanwhile, in the Persian Gulf region, Kuwait briefly closed its main airport on Wednesday after Iranian drones struck a passenger terminal, killing one person and injuring dozens. It is the latest in successive attacks by Tehran and Washington that have tested the ceasefire.

The strike has once again highlighted the risks faced by residents and travelers from Gulf countries that considered themselves relatively safe havens before the war, now in its fourth month.

Path to lasting ceasefire in Lebanon obscured by new strikes

The path to a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah remains unclear as hostilities continue in Lebanon.

An Israeli strike hit a car on a busy highway just south of Beirut on Wednesday, hours before the second day of talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington.

The attack in Khaldeh occurred without warning and it was not immediately clear whether the targeted person had been killed.

Israel and Lebanon reached a U.S.-brokered deal on Monday under which Israel would not strike Beirut’s southern suburbs and Hezbollah would end its attacks on northern Israel.

The deal came hours after Israel announced it would launch strikes in sprawling urban neighborhoods near the Lebanese capital, in what would have been the most intense strikes since a nominal ceasefire took effect on April 17.

The State Department said progress was made Tuesday during the first day of talks. Lebanon hopes to broaden the scope of the ceasefire so that it becomes comprehensive across the country. Israel wants to disarm Hezbollah immediately before the Israeli army ends its operations in Lebanon and withdraws its troops from dozens of villages and towns.

Shortly after the attack on Khaldeh, the Israeli military said it had intercepted what it called a hostile plane coming from southern Lebanon, but it did not immediately blame Hezbollah. Hezbollah has not claimed any cross-border attacks since the agreement.

Israeli military warning shakes coastal town

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon continued, particularly in and around the battered towns of Tire and Nabatiyeh. Two nighttime strikes near the coastal city of Tyre, killed four Syrians and two Palestinians.

Israel warned Christian neighborhoods in Tire that Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims have fled to these areas in recent days because they have been spared from aerial bombardments along the Mediterranean coast.

After this warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian quarter of Tire in an effort to prevent Israeli attacks there and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area.

Israel launched an invasion of southern Lebanon days after the latest war broke out on March 2, when Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with Iran. Israeli troops have moved deeper into Lebanon over the past week, as Hezbollah continues to claim rocket and drone attacks.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon and displaced 1.2 million people. According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and one defense contractor were killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians were also killed in northern Israel.

Strike on village kills most of family

Many residents of southern Lebanon remained in villages close to the hostilities or returned to areas where strikes took place after warnings to evacuate.

The Al-Abdallah family returned to their home in Marwanieyh, which they left because they believed the village was unsafe following previous strikes. A day later, two rockets hit the house, destroying the three-story building and killing six family members, said the brother of Hassan Al-Abdallah, who was killed.

Ahmed Al-Abdallah, 13, was thrown from the building by the force of the explosions and was the only member of his family to survive. His uncle, Eissa Al-Abdallah, said the boy had two broken legs and shrapnel all over his body.

“What’s the point of talking now? They’re gone and nothing will bring them back,” the uncle told The Associated Press in a phone call Tuesday. “This land costs blood.”

Boak reported from Washington.

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