US President Donald Trump says he will call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “right now” to urge him not to retaliate after Iran fired missiles towards northern Israel.
Speaking to Channel 12’s Barak Ravid, Trump said: “The Iranian strikes didn’t hurt anybody. Hopefully Israel is not going to retaliate. If Bibi strikes them back, it’s just gonna keep going like the last 47 years, or the last 3000 years.”
Trump added: “We are very close to a final deal with Iran. It is going to be a good deal. I don’t want it to blow up because of what is happening now.”
“I am going to call Bibi right now and tell him not to retaliate,” Trump said. “Each of them had their fun. Israel had its strike and Iran had its strike. We don’t need another one.”
“I don’t want to see an additional attack tonight,” Trump reportedly added.
Ravid said “it’s not clear” whether Washington would support Israel if it attacked Iran again. He added that Israeli decision-makers would need to think carefully after a senior US official told him “we’re not in this” – an apparent warning against another escalation.
Channel 12 said Israeli officials had earlier planned a “forceful response”.
