Donald Trump has claimed that “there would be no Israel” if not for him, as he denied he had been “tricked” into the ongoing conflict with Iran.
The US president and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently had a furious call over the war, according to an Axios report, with Trump said to have called his counterpart “crazy”.
In a wide-ranging interview with the conservative podcast Pod Force One released on Wednesday, Trump pushed back at suggestions he had been manoeuvred into starting the war three months ago.
“I’m the one that started it,” the president insisted. “I started it because we can’t let them [Iran] have a nuclear weapon. If there wasn’t me there would be no Israel right now.”
During the interview, the president was asked directly about the call with Netanyahu and whether reports of the ill-tempered exchange were accurate.
“Axios reported that you had a phone call with BB Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, in which you were angry with him,” podcast host and conservative commentator Miranda Devine said, before detailing the claims.
“You said ‘are you f***ing crazy’, ‘what are you f***ing doing’, ‘I helped you stay out of jail’. Is that true? Did you speak to him in those terms?
Trump responded: “I did. I wouldn’t say angry, I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon. At some point I said, ‘Bibi you’ve got to stop this. You’ve got to stop it’.”
But he insisted that the pair remain cordial.
“We have a very good relationship,” Trump added. “I like him a lot. I’ve worked very well with him.”
The president’s latest remarks come as US and Iran exchanged fresh strikes in the region on Wednesday, with discussions on a ceasefire agreement appearing to have reached a stalemate. Iran has insisted that any ceasefire deal is applied to Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has continued.
Trump insisted that Iran has agreed not to have a nuclear weapon in the interview but said the regime could still “change their mind”.
“I did have to say we have to do something about Iran, because regardless of how well we’re doing [economically] we can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “They’ve already agreed they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.”
“I mean, now they can change their mind, but that was one of the things they’ve had to agree, they’ve agreed to that. That was the big thing.”
Trump also said that new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been involved in discussions with the US and that he is giving his approval in talks. He added that he will “probably” meet with Khamenei at “some point”.
The new supreme leader has not been seen in public since his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli air strikes on 28 February. He is reported to have been seriously injured in the attack but has continued to issue instructions, according to reports.
The lack of progress on a peace deal has led to fresh fears the region could be plunged into further chaos.
One person was killed and at least 63 were injured after an Iranian drone strike hit Kuwait International Airport on Wednesday, authorities said. Bahrain also reported intercepting Iranian drones and missiles in its airspace.
Iran accused the US of violating a ceasefire agreement and said that Kuwait and Bahrain bore “direct and clear responsibility” for attacks against Iran.
The US military said it had launched strikes on an Iranian military ground control station on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz in response to the attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps acknowledged the attacks but said the strikes were in retaliation for attacks on Qeshm Island.
Trump has claimed that reports that discussions have ended are “false” and insisted that they are ongoing. However, Iran’s state news agencies have reported that Tehran’s negotiators and US representatives had stopped exchanging messages days ago.
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