Trump says Netanyahu will have ‘no choice’ but to accept a deal with Iran – FT
President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have no choice but to accept any agreement the US reaches with Iran because he, not Netanyahu, “calls the shots.”
“He won’t have any choice,” Trump told the Financial Times in a phone interview. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”
Trump spoke shortly after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel in the most serious violation of the ceasefire reached in early April. He also told Fox News he would instruct Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iran, a stance that differs from statements made by the Israeli military.
Despite the attack, Trump said he remains committed to US-Iran negotiations. “It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” he told the FT. “We’ll see how it ends up. But they [the missile strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all. It’s one of those things that’s been going for 3,000 years, or 47 years, depending on how you count.”
Unlike earlier comments the president has made, Trump did not sound bullish that a deal with Iran was imminent. “I think the deal is going on,” he said. “We’ll see what happens.”
He stressed that Sunday’s attack would not affect his thinking. “The deal may make it on its own merit, or not, but this will not have any effect on it.”
Asked what would happen if a deal failed “on its merits,” Trump said he would consider either a commando raid on Iran or maintaining the blockade.
“It means [one of] two things,” he said. “Number one, it would mean that possibly we would go in and take care of the rest of the place that we didn’t take care of militarily. Or it would just mean that we would keep the blockade on Iran because the blockade has been probably more powerful than any attack that was ever made on that country.”
