President Donald Trump clashed with his closest ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during a “lengthy and dramatic” secret call on Tuesday, according to a new report.
Israel‘s Channel 12 reports that the two allies butted heads in an overnight phone call over their differing views on strategy for the war in Iran they launched in February.
Netanyahu is reportedly pressing for military strikes on Tehran, while Trump is still pushing for a diplomatic agreement that would force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions without escalating the conflict further.
Asked about what he told Netanyahu during the call, Trump told reporters: “He’s fine. He’ll do whatever I want him to do.”
He added that the Israeli prime minister, accused of war crimes in Gaza by the International Criminal Court, is a “great guy” and “wartime prime minister.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
The call came shortly after The New York Times reported that Israel, allegedly with Trump’s backing, entered the conflict with a plan to elevate former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial strikes.
The effort reportedly unraveled almost immediately when Ahmadinejad was injured in a strike on his Tehran residence and subsequently disappeared from public view.
How and when the conflict will end is still uncertain, with negotiations between the U.S. and Israel and Iran stalling.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier this month rejected Trump’s latest proposal to end the war, insisting Tehran would “never bow” to U.S. demands to halt uranium enrichment and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump blasted Iran’s response as “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” on Truth Social.
Since then, Trump has hinted that he may restart military strikes on Iran if they refuse to make concessions over their nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. Asked how long he would wait before considering airstrikes, he said: “Two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Something maybe early next week.”
Israeli officials are reportedly advocating for a more aggressive approach, including a potential Special Forces raid to seize Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile. But according to Axios, Trump has so far resisted signing off on the high-risk operation.
Iran has warned that any renewed strikes by the U.S. or Israel would trigger retaliation extending far beyond the Middle East, raising fears of a much wider conflict.
“If aggression against Iran is repeated, the regional war that had been promised will this time extend beyond the region,” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The IRGC also vowed “crushing blows in places you do not expect.”
Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that renewed military strikes on Tehran are “option B.”
“But that’s not what the president wants. And I don’t think it’s what the Iranians want either,” he added.
