President Donald Trump delivered a stunning public message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, declaring that Israel will have no choice but to accept any agreement reached between Washington and Tehran while insisting that he alone is directing the negotiations.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Trump was asked whether Netanyahu would accept a potential U.S.-Iran agreement.

“He won’t have any choice,” Trump responded.

Trump then doubled down on the assertion, saying: “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots.”

The extraordinary remarks came amid escalating regional tensions, shortly after Iran launched ballistic missile attacks toward northern Israel in support of Hezbollah following an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut.

According to the report, Trump spoke with Netanyahu approximately an hour before the interview. Earlier in the evening, Trump told Axios that he intended to urge the Israeli premier not to retaliate against Iran as Washington continues its efforts to secure a diplomatic agreement with Tehran.

Despite the Iranian missile attacks, Trump insisted they would not alter his pursuit of a deal.

“It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” Trump said.

He added: “We’ll see how it ends up. But they [the missile strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all. It’s one of those things that’s been going for 3,000 years, or 47 years, depending on how you count.”

The Financial Times noted that Trump did not indicate that an agreement was imminent. However, the president told Fox News earlier in the evening that negotiations had been progressing rapidly and that a deal may have been only days away before the latest attacks.

“I think the deal is going on,” Trump told the newspaper.

“We’ll see what happens,” he continued.

“The deal may make it on its own merit, or not, but this will not have any effect on it.”

Trump also reiterated that military action remains an option should diplomacy fail.

“[Not reaching a deal] means [one of] two things,” Trump said.

“Number one, it would mean that possibly we would go in and take care of the rest of the place that we didn’t take care of militarily.”

He added: “Or it would just mean that we would keep the [U.S. naval] blockade on Iran, because the blockade has been probably more powerful than any attack that was ever made on that country.”

The comments are likely to reverberate throughout Israel’s political and security establishment, as they represent one of Trump’s strongest public assertions yet regarding Washington’s authority over negotiations with Iran and Israel’s role in any eventual agreement.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)