President Donald Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce Israel’s missile strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon in hopes of improving the ceasefire talks with Iran.
Trump made the request during a Wednesday phone call with Netanyahu after Israel conducted strikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon overnight, according to NBC News, and said during an interview that Israel was “scaling back” its operations in Lebanon.
“I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it,” Trump told NBC News. “I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key.”
White House officials declined to comment on the report, but Netanyahu announced in a statement on Thursday that he was opening direct negotiations with Lebanon focused “on the disarmament of Hezbollah from its weapons and the regulation of peace relations between Israel and Lebanon.”
Vice President JD Vance confirmed on Wednesday that U.S. leadership had been in contact with Israel and that Israeli leaders had offered to “check themselves a little bit in Lebanon” amid disagreement between the U.S. and Iran over whether Israel halting attacks against Lebanon was included in the pause in fighting.
“That’s not because that is part of the ceasefire,” Vance said. “I think that’s the Israelis trying to set us up for success, and we’ll, of course, see how that unfolds in the next few days.”
Vance chalked up the differing accounts between the U.S. and Iran as a “legitimate misunderstanding,” saying what the U.S. did agree to was an agreement focused on Iran that included U.S. allies, including Israel and Gulf Arab states.
Vance added that if Iran wants to end the ceasefire over Lebanon, “that’s ultimately their choice. We think that would be dumb, but that’s their choice.”
Trump announced earlier this week that the United States and Tehran had agreed to a two-week ceasefire to advance ongoing peace talks on how to end the war. The president said the ceasefire was contingent on the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to international commerce.
However, just four ships passed through the Strait in the first 24 hours of the ceasefire, compared to the more than 100 per day that traveled through those waters prior to the war’s opening on February 28.
Iranian officials said Thursday that “any peace in the region must include Lebanon.”
Trump had halted American strikes against targets in Iran, and he wrote in a statement on social media Thursday morning that “All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with.”
US AND IRAN AGREE TO TWO-WEEK CEASEFIRE AFTER TRUMP ACCEPTS ‘WORKABLE’ 10-POINT PLAN
“If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE,” he said. “In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest.”
Hailey Bullis contributed to this report.