Trump claims Israel ‘would have been blown up’ without him in new warning to Netanyahu

Donald Trump issued a new warning to Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday amid mounting concern Israel’s parallel war with Hezbollah could derail the entire peace process with Iran.

“Israel would have been blown up a long time ago, had I not got involved,” the US president told reporters in France ahead of a meeting with G7 leaders on ensuring stability in the Middle East.

Trump repeated his claim that “without the United States, there would be no Israel” and urged Israel’s prime minister to “be more responsible” on Lebanon.

The president’s latest dressing down came as Iran warned that continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon would be considered a breach of the interim agreement to end the war, announced on Sunday.

Israeli officials have argued that Israel is not bound by the agreement as they were not involved in the talks, but Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in Tehran’s view, the US and Israel are on the same team.

“Without the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territories they occupied during this war, the war has not fully come to an end,” he said on Tuesday.

Trump, under pressure to secure a lasting end to the unpopular war, offered an indictment of Israel’s record in Lebanon soon after, suggesting Hezbollah ought to be left to someone more capable.

“Israel is fighting Hezbollah too long and too many people are being killed,” he assessed. “You don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. Because there are a lot of people in those apartment houses. And they’re not all Hezbollah, I can tell you.”

“They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that’s the deal with Iran.”

Trump even suggested Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa would be able to better lead the fight against Hezbollah.

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah. Because to be honest with you, I think they’d do a better job of doing it … If Israel can’t do the job without killing everyone else, he’ll do the job. Syria will do the job.”

Trump said that while he has a “great relationship” with Netanyahu, his counterpart “has to be more responsible” on Lebanon.

Earlier this month, Iran launched missiles at Israel in response to the continued attacks in Lebanon, prompting Trump to intervene and tell Israel not to retaliate. Israel struck targets across Iran hours later.

While Netanyahu has avoided direct confrontation with Trump over the peace plan, senior officials have suggested the deal presents a major headache.

One senior Israeli official told Reuters the agreement was “terrible for Israel”, an assessment they indicated was shared throughout the government from Netanyahu down.

Polls in Israel have repeatedly showed a larger truce with Iran under these terms isn’t popular either, putting Netanyahu in a bind.