Donald Trump confirms he called Benjamin Netanyahu ‘crazy’ amid Iran peace talks

Donald Trump has confirmed a report that he criticised Benjamin Netanyahu as “crazy”, saying he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon was holding back peace talks with Iran.

But the US president insisted his relationship with the Israeli Prime Minister is solid and they connect in part because they are both “wartime” leaders.

“We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Mr Trump told the New York Post’s Pod Force One in an interview released on Wednesday.

The president’s acknowledgement of the tense phone call with Mr Netanyahu on Monday is a sign of the growing pressure he faces to resolve the Iran war, as higher energy prices and economic uncertainty are harming Republicans going into midterm elections and hampering global commerce.

But Mr Trump remained non-committal about a timeline for settling the conflict, saying the Strait of Hormuz might stay blocked until the Labour Day holiday on September 7. He has insisted that Tehran stop any efforts that could lead to a nuclear weapon and that the strait be reopened for the shipments of oil and natural gas.

“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be (closed until Labour Day), but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” he said.

He added that Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his late father, is “involved” in peace talks.

“They have a lot of respect for him,” Mr Trump said in the interview.

The president said that Mr Khamenei is not doing well due to injuries sustained in an air strike, but “they say he’s giving approval because that’s the way it has been for a long, long time”. Mr Khamenei’s father was killed during air strikes when the US and Israel attacked Iran at the end of March.