Trump Netanyahu call: 'shouting match from hell' over Iran, report says
An Israeli report says Trump and Netanyahu clashed over restarting strikes on Iran. Netanyahu's office calls it fake news. What each side says.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu had a furious argument on the phone over whether to restart strikes on Iran, the Israeli news site Ynet reported, quoting people familiar with the call. One source described it as “a shouting match from hell”. Netanyahu’s office denies it.
What the report says
According to Ynet, the call took place over the weekend. Netanyahu pushed Trump to resume military action against Iran; Trump wanted to keep the diplomatic track open and let talks continue. The Financial Times separately reported that Netanyahu has been calling the president “every day” to press for the war to restart.
What Netanyahu’s office says
It rejected the report as “fake news” and “complete nonsense”. A senior Israeli official confirmed that the two leaders did speak, but said it was “very much not a difficult conversation”. The White House has not described the call in detail.
So the shouting part rests on anonymous sources and is denied. The disagreement underneath it is reported far more widely.
The split over Iran
Trump has said the war is “militarily effectively over” and that new strikes on Iran are unlikely, after talks with Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is mediating between Washington and Tehran. Israel wants pressure kept up. Iran, for its part, denies holding talks with the US and says the Strait of Hormuz will stay shut until its demands are met. On Thursday, Reuters reported Iranian claims that four tankers were hit by explosions in the strait.
This is not the first reported clash between the two. In June, Trump was reported to have called Netanyahu “crazy” during another call.
Why it matters to Pakistan
What Trump and Netanyahu decide about Iran decides whether Hormuz reopens. Most of Pakistan’s oil and gas imports pass through it, and petrol prices have only just started to fall here, with six cuts in a row. A return to strikes would push oil up again. A deal would help keep prices falling.
The thing to watch is the Qatari mediation: whether Washington and Tehran agree to direct talks, which US Vice President JD Vance is reported to be considering.
