Iran has accused US of having a direct role in controlling Israeli actions, following President Donald Trump’s claims of having convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to not go through with his intended attack on Beirut.
Calling it evidence of the US’ “direct role” in managing Israel’s conduct in the war, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi called Washington a direct backer of “Israeli aggression”, stating that Trump’s claims were “more than an indication of Washington’s peace-seeking nature, evidence of the United States’ direct role in managing the aggressions of the Israeli regime.”
Taking to his social media platform Truth Social, Trump said that he had specifically asked Netanyahu during a phone call Monday to “not to go into a major raid of Beirut,” which Israel had threatened earlier in the day.
“He turned his Troops around,” Trump wrote in his post.
“If the decision to strike the capital of an independent state can be changed with a phone call,” Gharibabadi wrote, “the main question is why months of ceasefire violations, aggression against Lebanon, the displacement of people, and threats to that country’s sovereignty continued with Western political and military support.”
He further claimed that the ongoing “regional crisis” was not merely a result of “scattered tensions,” but rather the direct product of “Israeli aggression” and the supposed “immunity” given to Jerusalem by Washington.
Israeli military has been continuing to engage in fierce clashes with the Iran-backed-proxy Islamist group Hezbollah, and had overnight clashes with each other despite having signed a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon, brokered by the White House.
