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U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed he used profanity to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "crazy" during a phone call regarding the conflict in Lebanon.
In an interview broadcast Wednesday on the "Pod Force One" podcast, Trump admitted to the exchange, which occurred while the U.S. was attempting to negotiate an end to hostilities with Iran. Trump downplayed the anger behind his comments, stating he was simply "perturbed" by Israel's military actions in Lebanon, and maintained that he and Netanyahu still get along very well.
“I wouldn't say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon, you know.” as quoted in an Axios report.
According to the Axios report, which cited an unidentified U.S. official, Trump said to Netanyahu in a call on Monday: "You're fucking crazy. You'd be in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”
Trump said in the interview: "At some point I said, Bibi, we got to stop this. We got to stop it."
Iran has said it will not agree to a deal with the United States to end the war that Trump and Netanyahu launched in late February, unless a ceasefire also covers Lebanon, which Israel invaded in March in pursuit of the Iran-aligned Hezbollah militia that fired across the border in support of Tehran.
Trump bristled when asked if Netanyahu "tricked" him into attacking Iran, saying his critics were "the enemy."
"I mean, I'm the one that started it," Trump said. "I started because we can't let them have a nuclear weapon."
"Now that pertains to Israel, because they probably would have been the first one to get hit. There would be no Israel. Tell you what, if there wasn't me, there would be no Israel right now."
Trump maintained that Israel would have been in a far worse position if he had not abandoned a 2015 accord reached by President Barack Obama and other world leaders with Iran, under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.
After Trump withdrew from that deal during his first White House term in 2018, Iran produced stockpiles of near-weapons-grade highly enriched uranium, which Trump now demands it relinquish. Trump's critics say Iran is now closer to making a nuclear weapon, and it will be hard for Trump to negotiate a better deal today.
