JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed on Wednesday a row with US President Donald Trump, saying they both were aligned on the goal of disarming Hezbollah in order to achieve peace between Israel and Lebanon.

Trump confirmed in an interview published on Wednesday in the New York Post that he had a tense exchange with Netanyahu two days prior, in which he reportedly berated his close ally with expletives.

On Monday, American news outlet Axios reported citing sources that Trump called Netanyahu “crazy” and accused him of ingratitude during the phone call.

The report quoted a US official as saying that Trump told Netanyahu “you’re f****** crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this”.

Trump confirmed to New York Post’s Miranda Devine during ‘Pod One Force’ podcast that he called Netanyahu “f****** crazy”, but also insisted that they have “worked very well together”.

Asked if the Axios report was true and whether he spoke to Netanyahu in those terms, Trump replied, “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, we’re gonna stop this. We got to stop it,” he added.

At the same time, Trump said, “But I have a very good relationship. […] We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Trump insisted after confirming his expletive-laden outburst demanding that Netanyahu cease attacks.

“I’m a wartime president,” the commander-in-chief said. “He’s a wartime prime minister.”

Netanyahu downplayed the dispute in an interview with US television channel CNBC, saying he and Trump were on the same page when it came to tackling Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah “is an Iranian proxy that puts all the citizens of Lebanon at gunpoint and uses Lebanon as a platform to launch terror missiles into our cities, to launch killer drones against our civilians”, Netanyahu said in the interview.

“And so if we want to save Lebanon, if we want to get a Lebanese-Israeli peace, as I do, we have to disarm Hezbollah and we have to demilitarise Lebanon. And I know that this is a goal that the president and I share, and that’s what we have to do.”

Trump had said he was “perturbed” by the situation in Lebanon when he spoke to Netanyahu on Monday.

“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?” the New York Post interviewer asked.

“I did,” Trump responded. “I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon.”

“I said, ‘Bibi, we gotta stop this.'”

Trump went on to say he had a “very good relationship” with Netanyahu. “We’ve done well together… I like Bibi a lot.”

Netanyahu told his CNBC interviewer that he and Trump had always “found a way” to move forward, declining to elaborate on the details of their conversation.

“We have so many agreements, we agree on the main things,” he said.

“You have these tactical disagreements. We always find a way to work them out, and we do so as great friends. We can disagree in the morning, and by the afternoon, we have common action,” he said.

When asked whether his relationship with Trump had changed, Netanyahu said: “No”.

“This has been a great relationship, because he’s been the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House,” he said.

“He respects me. I respect him. We always find a way to work out our differences.”
AFP (With input from News Desk)