President Donald Trump was humiliated Sunday as Iran defied its ceasefire agreement and launched a wave of missiles at Israel.
Iran’s attack marked the first time it had launched missiles at Israel since Trump declared a ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran in early April.
Tehran said it had fired the missiles in retaliation for Israel’s strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, earlier on Sunday, which came despite Trump’s pleas to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt its attacks in Lebanon.
The 79-year-old president, who is in the middle of negotiating a deal with Iran to end the war he started more than three months ago, scrambled to contain the fallout from the fresh escalation.
“I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate. Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike, and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one,” Trump told Axios’ Barak Ravid.
The president claimed that the Iranian strikes “didn’t hurt anybody,” and added: “If Bibi strikes them back, it’s just gonna keep going like the last 47 years—or the last 3,000 years.”
The president also said that the U.S. was “very close to a final deal with Iran,” a claim he has made repeatedly since announcing the ceasefire, despite several clashes between U.S. and Iranian forces.
“I don’t want it to blow up because of what is happening now,” he said.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the strikes. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a separate call with Fox News’s Trey Yingst, Trump said, “What I would suggest to Iran: You’ve shot your missiles. That’s enough—get back to the table and make a deal.”
The president told Yingst that he had expected an agreement to be signed on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday this week, before the latest round of fighting between Israel and Iran erupted.
Trump said he was “not happy” about the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, adding that they were “not coordinated with the U.S.”
Israel said the attacks were launched in retaliation for Iran-backed Hezbollah firing at northern Israel earlier in the day.
In comments to the Financial Times, Trump tried to project a sense of command, saying, “I call the shots. I call all the shots. [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”
But it’s unclear if Netanyahu will heed Trump’s calls for restraint. Israeli military spokesperson Effie Defrin said Sunday that Israel will “intensify” its strikes on Hezbollah in response to the Iranian missile attack, CNN reports. The IDF said it will “strike the enemy with determination” once the order is given.
Trump has sought to end the conflict amid soaring gas prices and unforgiving polls, but a deal has remained elusive, and the president has blown past the multiple deadlines he has announced. Trump had initially said he intended the war to last four to six weeks.
