Netanyahu ‘agrees’ to delay Iran strike at Trump’s request

At the request of US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to refrain from retaliating for Iran’s ballistic missile attack, giving Washington a few more days to reach a diplomatic deal with Tehran.
Iran launched a missile attack on Israel on Sunday (June 7) despite a ceasefire agreement with the United States in early April. US President Donald Trump spoke to the Israeli prime minister by phone shortly after.
He urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from responding to Iran’s missile attack for the time being. Netanyahu agreed to Trump’s call. Trump has asked Washington to give him a few more days to reach a diplomatic deal with Tehran, the Times of Israel reported.
A report by the US news outlet Axios, citing a senior US official and a senior Israeli official, said that during the call, Trump urged Netanyahu to refrain from retaliating in response to the attack. The US official said that Trump believed that “we are very close to achieving something good with this deal.”
According to the US official, Netanyahu tried to convince Trump to oppose his decision and allow Israel to attack Iran. However, he ultimately “kind of agreed” to the president’s request.
The US official described the recent call as much calmer or more cordial than the heated exchange between the two leaders over the Israeli attack plan in Beirut last week. In the previous call, Trump had publicly rebuked Netanyahu and admitted to speaking loudly. The US official said that the president did not speak loudly in today’s call.
After the call, the US official added, “We think the president has some time. He has been very adamant that we are very close to a deal with Iran. I don’t think Israel will strike anytime soon.” Israel’s Channel 12 News reported that no formal decision had been made in Israel and that Netanyahu was meeting with senior security officials about the matter half an hour earlier. In a separate report, two US officials told Channel 12 News that the White House did not authorize the Israeli strike on Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday morning. That strike was the one that provoked Iran to launch the attack. “We had no role in it (the Beirut attack),” one of the officials said.