President Trump said he planned to tell Israel’s prime minister not to retaliate after Iran launched a missile attack on the Jewish State Sunday — noting that further escalation will only stall the fragile ceasefire negotiations.
Iran fired at least 10 missiles at Israel on Sunday, hours after the Israeli Defense Forces launched its own attack on a Hezbollah command center in Beirut.
Trump told Fox News that he “wasn’t happy” about Israel’s brazen attack on Beirut after he’d told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stand down. But he recognized that Iran’s latest blow wasn’t “going to help negotiations” either.
“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 the outlet.
The president also boasted about the power of the US military and the ongoing naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, which has choked Iran’s oil-reliant economy.
Trump separately told Axios that he was “calling Netanyahu right now and telling him not to attack Iran in response.”
“Each of them had their fun. If Bibi strikes them back it’s just gonna keep going like the last 47 years, or the last 3,000 years,” Trump said.
Reached by The Post Sunday afternoon, Trump also said in a brief phone interview that “things are going very well.”
Iranian officials, meanwhile, appeared eager to ramp up the firefight with Israel and the US.
“Our acceptance of the ceasefire on April 8 was conditional on a ceasefire on ALL fronts; but as always, America and Israel did not adhere to their commitment, they continued the aggression and crimes in Lebanon, and attacked Iranian vessels,” Iran’s military said in a statement shared with regime media on Sunday.
Mohsen Rezaei, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, touted the “response” foreign “aggressors” received and promised that Israel would see “a more crushing response and heavier costs” if it retaliates.
Israel doesn’t appear to be standing down just yet. Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, a top Israeli military spokesman, said in brief televised remarks that it was approving plans for further action in Lebanon.
Defrin didn’t note any immediate retaliation for Sunday’s strikes, but blasted Iran for committing “a grave mistake.”
Before the strikes in Beirut, Iran warned an attack would spark a full-scale war across the Middle East.
