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US President Donald Trump told The Times of Israel on Sunday that a decision on when to end the war with Iran will be a “mutual” one that he’ll make together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump also asserted in the brief telephone interview that the Islamic Republic would have destroyed Israel if he and Netanyahu had not been around. “Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it… We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel.”
The US president was asked whether he alone would decide when the war with Iran ends or if Netanyahu would also have a say.
“I think it’s mutual… a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,” he responded, indicating that while Netanyahu will have input, the US president will have the final say.
Asked whether Israel could continue the war against Iran even after the US decides to halt its strikes, Trump declined to entertain the theoretical possibility before adding: “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary.”
Trump has sought to avoid being locked down to a specific timeline for the war, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Friday that Washington expects it to last four to six weeks.
Trump’s answers to The Times of Israel pointed to the significant degree of influence Netanyahu would appear to have over Trump’s decision-making in the war, which the US and Israel launched jointly on February 28 with a strike that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
Trump held the phone interview shortly after Iran’s state media announced that the Islamic Republic’s Assembly of Experts had named Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, as the country’s next supreme leader.
Hours earlier, Trump told ABC News that the next leader of Iran won’t “last long” if he doesn’t have approval from the White House.
Trump declined to comment to ToI on Mojtaba’s election, sufficing by declaring: “We’ll see what happens.”
Give Netanyahu that pardon
The US president made headlines in Israel last week by calling President Isaac Herzog a “disgrace” for not heeding his call to pardon Netanyahu, who is standing trial for alleged bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The next day, though, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, met with Herzog and hailed the latter’s leadership.
Asked if this was part of a “good cop-bad cop” strategy to sway Herzog, Trump avoided answering directly, but again chided the Israeli president.
“Bibi Netanyahu should be given that pardon immediately. I think [Herzog is] doing a terrible thing by not giving it. We want Bibi to be focused on the war, not on a ridiculous pardon,” Trump told ToI, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.
Herzog’s office said last week that it’s his prerogative to decide for himself whether to grant Netanyahu a pardon.
“President Herzog greatly respects and appreciates the tremendous contribution of Donald Trump to Israel’s security,” his office said, while stressing that Israel “is a sovereign state governed by the rule of law,” and as such, the pardon request is currently being dealt with by the Justice Ministry, which will offer its legal opinion, as per the law. No timeline has been announced for when that legal opinion will be issued.
Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu has improved dramatically since the 2024 US presidential election season, after the pair seemed to have had a falling out four years earlier when the Israeli premier congratulated Joe Biden for defeating Trump.
In a 2021 interview with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, Trump blasted Netanyahu for calling Biden to congratulate him on the 2020 election win and went on to assert that the Israeli premier had never been interested in making peace with the Palestinians.
Asked during the Sunday phone interview whether his feelings about Netanyahu have evolved since his previous tenure, Trump responded: “We’ve done a great job together, like what we’ve done with Iran.”
‘Now we have Iran being destroyed’
The US president then made a new assertion regarding Iran’s intentions, in an apparent attempt to further justify the decision to launch the war against the Islamic Republic eight days earlier.
“Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it… and now look what we have — we have them being destroyed,” Trump said of Iran.
The US president said he wasn’t surprised by how widespread support for the Iran war is in Israel, joking that the only thing more popular there is his own favorables.
He then reiterated his praise for Netanyahu and their partnership against the Islamic Republic: “Bibi’s done a great job. He’s been a wartime prime minister. We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel. Would have destroyed Israel if I wasn’t around.
“And [if] Bibi wasn’t around, Israel would not exist today,” he added.
Will Iran war lead to Hamas disarmament?
The Iran war appears to have pushed off discussions the US and fellow Gaza mediating countries Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are slated to hold with Palestinian terror group Hamas on its disarmament.
Given Iran’s longstanding financial support for Hamas, Trump was asked whether Tehran’s weakening in the ongoing war would make it easier to coax the Gaza-based terror group to give up its weapons.
“Many people will disarm because of [the war against Iran],” he responded. “Because right now, Iran is in a position that it’s never known before, and it’s only going to get worse for them.”
Before ending the call, Trump said again: “Tell this president to give him the pardon right now.”
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