- Trump calls Netanyahu “crazy”.
- Israel’s Beirut raid plan put on hold.
- Iran warns ceasefire covers Lebanon.
US President Donald Trump angrily confronted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s escalation in Lebanon and later claimed Israeli troops had been turned back from Beirut, as Washington sought to prevent the fighting from derailing negotiations with Iran.
Axios, citing two US officials and a third source briefed on the call, reported that Trump lashed out at Netanyahu in an expletive-laden phone call on Monday, calling him “crazy” and accusing him of ingratitude.
The call came after Iran warned that the ceasefire between Tehran and Washington applied to all fronts, including Lebanon, and threatened to abandon negotiations with the US over Israel’s actions in Lebanon.
“The ceasefire between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.
“Its violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts,” he said, adding that the US and Israel would be responsible for the consequences of any violation.
In a post on Truth Social after the call, Trump said he had held “a very productive call” with Netanyahu and that there would be “no Troops going to Beirut”.
“Any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump wrote.
Trump also claimed he had spoken with Hezbollah through representatives and that the group had agreed to stop firing at Israel and its soldiers, while Israel had also agreed to stop shooting at them.
“Let’s see how long that lasts — Hopefully it will be for ETERNITY!” Trump wrote.
No US president has ever spoken with Hezbollah, with or without intermediaries, and the group is designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States.
A Lebanese official told Reuters that Hezbollah had informed the United States, through Lebanon’s parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, that it was willing to halt attacks on northern Israel in exchange for Israel sparing Beirut and its suburbs from strikes.
Lebanon’s embassy in Washington said Hezbollah had accepted a US proposal for a “reciprocal cessation of attacks”.
Axios reported that Trump recognised Hezbollah had been firing at Israel and that Israel needed to defend itself, but believed Netanyahu had escalated in a disproportionate way in recent days.
One US official told Axios that Trump warned Netanyahu that bombing Beirut would further isolate Israel internationally.
Two sources said Trump claimed he had helped keep Netanyahu out of jail, a reference to his support during the Israeli premier’s corruption trial.
Summarising Trump’s remarks, a US official told Axios that Trump called Netanyahu “crazy”, claimed he had helped keep him out of jail, and accused him of making Israel more isolated internationally.
A second source briefed on the call said Trump was furious and shouted at Netanyahu over the escalation.
Another US official said Trump was concerned that Israel had killed large numbers of civilians in Lebanon and objected to Israeli forces demolishing buildings to target a single Hezbollah commander.
An Israeli official told Axios that Israel no longer planned to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut.
Netanyahu, however, said after the call that Israel’s position remained unchanged.
“Tonight, I spoke with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens — Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut,” Netanyahu wrote on X.
“This stance of ours remains unchanged,” he added.
Netanyahu said the Israeli military would continue to operate “as planned” in southern Lebanon.
A second US official claimed that Trump had “steamrolled” Netanyahu during the call. Netanyahu responded by saying, “OK, OK, just make sure everything is taken care of,” according to the official cited by Axios.
Trump later wrote that talks with Iran were “continuing, at a rapid pace”.
But Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran had suspended dialogue with mediators in protest over Israel’s expanding offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah.
In a message carried by Iranian state TV, the Revolutionary Guards intelligence body warned that “crossing the red lines in Lebanon and Gaza” would mean “direct war”.
Tasnim also reported that Iran would maintain its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and, with its allies, “activate other fronts”, including the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the entrance of the Red Sea.
Earlier Monday, Trump told CNBC that he did not care if the Iran peace talks collapsed, adding that he thought they had become “boring”.
The fighting in Lebanon has been the broadest spillover of the Iran war, displacing more than 1.2 million Lebanese through Israeli strikes and evacuation orders since March 2, when Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into Israel in support of Iran.
Israeli troops on Saturday seized the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and a strategic ridge in southern Lebanon, the military said, a day after one of the heaviest days of Hezbollah fire towards northern Israel since the April ceasefire.
Axios reported that the memorandum being negotiated by the US and Iran calls for an end to the fighting in Lebanon, which had also been the source of a previous tense call between Trump and Netanyahu.
