Netanyahu will have ‘no choice’ but to accept US deal with Iran, Trump says: Report

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would have to accept any nuclear deal Washington reaches with Tehran, asserting that he alone controls American foreign policy decisions.

“He won’t have any choice,” Trump said in a telephone interview with the Britain-based Financial Times. “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots.”

Trump’s remarks to the daily came after Iran launched ballistic missiles at targets in Israel in the most significant breach of a ceasefire reached in early April.

In earlier comments following the barrage, Trump had told US broadcaster Fox News that he would instruct Netanyahu not to retaliate against Iran. Subsequent reporting by outlet Axios and Israeli media indicated that the two had concluded a phone conversation on the matter.

Despite the missile attack, Trump said he would continue to pursue an agreement with Tehran.

“It’s not going to have any impact on the deal,” he said. “The deal may make it on its own merit, or not, but this will not have any effect on it.”

Should negotiations ultimately fail, Trump said he would consider military action against Iran or an intensified economic blockade.

“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 said, adding that the blockade had proven more damaging than military strikes.

The Iranian attack came after repeated Israeli strikes on targets in Lebanon despite multiple US-brokered ceasefires.

These included a strike on a Hezbollah position in the Lebanese capital Beirut on Sunday that prompted Iran’s missile response. Tehran has stated that a permanent Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon would be a prerequisite for any agreement with the US.