US President Donald Trump said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will “do whatever I want him to do. He’s a very good man,” when asked about their relationship by reporters on Wednesday.
While praising Netanyahu, Trump took a swipe at Israel’s domestic politics and referenced his repeated requests to President Isaac Herzog to grant the prime minister a pardon.
“Don’t forget he’s a wartime prime minister, and he’s not treated right in Israel, in my opinion. They have a president over there who treats him very poorly,” he said.
Trump then affirmed that the pair were coordinating efforts on Iran. Additionally, when asked about whether or not he’d consider a limited deal with Iran that covered just the Strait of Hormuz, he said, “We’d have to open the Strait; that would open immediately. We’re gonna give this one shot. I’m in no hurry.”
“Ideally, I’d like to see a few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We could do it either way, but I’d like to see few people killed.
“I just wonder whether or not they have the good of the people because some of the things they’re doing, to me, means they don’t have the good of the people, and they have to have the good of the people. There’s a lot of anger now in Iran because people are living so badly. There’s a lot of foment that we haven’t seen before; so much, and we’ll see what happens.”
Trump says negotiations will happen after alleging he might strike Iran
When asked whether it is taking longer than expected to make a deal with Iran, Trump strongly disagreed.
“Let’s put it this way, you were in Vietnam 19 years. You were in Afghanistan and these other places 10 years. You were in Iraq, how long were you in Iraq, 12? 12 years. You were in Korea for seven years. World War II was different; that was four years. I’m in for three months, and much of it has been a ceasefire.”
On Tuesday, Trump said that he had considered ordering a military strike on Iranian power plants and infrastructure, only to cancel it “one hour away” from execution at the request of Gulf allies to give diplomacy one last chance.
The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia released a statement on Wednesday praising Trump’s restraint.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia highly appreciated the US President Donald Trump’s decision to give diplomacy a chance to reach an acceptable agreement to end the war, [and] restore the security and freedom of maritime navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Later, a source with knowledge of the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that there has been progress in talks with the Iranians on a “memorandum of understanding and principles” that would lay the groundwork for negotiations.
The sources noted that there are still gaps, and no agreement has been reached yet.
A separate source told the Post that mediators hope that the new proposal submitted by the Iranians will help advance the process.
