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President Donald Trump lambasted his longtime ally for attacking Lebanon on the same day Trump hopes to sign a deal to end the conflict.
President Donald Trump lambasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday after Israel launched fresh attacks on Lebanon, saying on social media:“Let’s not blow it!”
A Fox News reporter said Trump told him he called Netanyahu and said, “What the f— are you doing?” Trump said he told Netanyahu not to launch more strikes against Hezbollah targets with a potential deal on the horizon, Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst reported.
Yingst also said the president told him he believed an agreement with Iran would be signed electronically on Sunday, which happens to be his 80th birthday, to be followed by an in-person signing in one week in Europe. MS NOW has not independently confirmed that reporting and Iran signaled Saturday it would not be signing a deal on Sunday, according to Reuters, citing Iranian state media.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Trump and Vice President JD Vance “have every intent of getting this done today.”
But on the same day that Trump said he expected to sign an elusive deal with Iranian leaders to end the war, the Israeli military bombarded Beirut’s southern suburbs with airstrikes, angering the president.
“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran. Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, adding that “this could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!”
The Israeli Defense Forces justified the attack, saying in a statement posted to X that a Hezbollah command center in Dahieh, Beirut, used “to advance terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians & IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon” was struck “following their launch of aerial targets toward Israel.”
In a joint statement, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said, “Israel will not tolerate firing at its territory.”
The IDF said that “prior to the strikes, steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians.” Israeli strikes have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, with at least 11,484 others wounded, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. More than 1.3 million people have been displaced after Israel issued evacuation orders to several villages in Lebanon, according to the UNHCR.
Iran’s Parliament speaker and chief negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Israel’s attacks on Lebanon show that the U.S. “either lacks the will to fulfill its commitments or the ability to do so.”
Now in its fifteenth week, the Iran war has sent the price of gas, fertilizer and other goods skyrocketing, shocking global economies and tanking Trump’s approval ratings. But Washington and Tehran this weekend appeared to be as close to reaching an agreement to end the war as they have since it began.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed optimism on Saturday, writing, “We are closer to a peace deal than ever before. With finalisation likely expected in the next 24 hours, Pakistan is preparing for the electronic signing of the peace deal immediately after, followed by technical level talks next week.”
Erum Salam
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
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