US President Donald Trump encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to respond to Iran's missile launch and to give negotiations more time, Axios reported, citing a senior US official and an Israeli source familiar to the development.
The chat coincided with allegations that the US president and Netanyahu's relationship was becoming more tense, with Trump branding his ally "crazy" in another recent phone conversation.
Fears of a new full-scale conflict were raised after Iran launched missiles at Israel throughout the night and Israel retaliated by attacking military installations in the Islamic Republic.
Trump posted on social media earlier on Monday, saying, "Israel and Iran must immediately stop 'shooting'."
Without providing any information, a White House official said that Trump and Netanyahu had a conversation on Monday.
Trump's attempt to limit an Israeli reaction is indicative of his administration's desire to prevent ongoing US negotiations with Tehran from being derailed by rising Israel-Iran tensions.
Before the discussion, Trump informed Axios that he intended to advise Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iran's missile launch, which Tehran said was a reaction to an Israeli strike in Beirut earlier on Sunday.
According to the senior US official, the Israeli strike in Beirut was not given the "green light" by the Trump administration.
During the call, Trump advised Netanyahu to wait because "we are close to doing something good in terms of a deal," the U.S. official said.
According to the official, Netanyahu resisted but eventually "pseudo-agreed" to go down.
Netanyahu "won't have any choice" but to accept any agreement the United States achieves in talks with Iran, Trump told the Financial Times. "I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn't call the shots," Trump said of Netanyahu.
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