U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday told Fox News that he had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to retaliate. Israel’s decision to ignore him and carry out a retaliatory attack on Iran points to growing tension between the two countries’ leaders.
Last week Trump criticized Netanyahu over Israel’s renewed attacks against Hezbollah on Lebanese territory, warning “if there wasn’t me, there’d be no Israel right now.” Speaking to the Financial Times on Sunday, he insisted the Israeli prime minister would have “no choice” but to accept a deal with Iran. “I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.”
Markets responded negatively to the renewal of direct strikes between Israel and Iran, with stocks on both Japan’s Nikkei 225 and South Korea’s Kospi indexes falling. Meanwhile, for the first time since the ceasefire was declared, oil prices shot up by 4.8 percent and are once again inching toward the $100 a barrel milestone.
In Europe, reactions to the new flareup of violence in the Middle East were muted. One of the few leaders to comment was Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot, who backed Trump’s call for deescalation.
“I agree with President Trump: the Israeli strikes against Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks against Israel violate the truce,” he wrote on X. “I join the call for immediate deescalation by all parties in the region and for getting back to the negotiation table.”