Trump hails 'great relationship' with Israel, calls PM Netanyahu a 'warrior PM' while addressing Iran MOU

U.S. President Donald Trump praised Washington’s “great relationship” with Israel on Friday and stressed America's close alliance during Operation Epic Fury against the Islamic Republic earlier this year.

“We fought very well with Israel, and we’ve had a great relationship with Israel,” Trump said at an event unveiling the new Air Force One aircraft, which the U.S. received as a gift from Qatar. He also described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “warrior prime minister” and praised U.S. Arab Gulf allies for “fighting with us” during the Iran war.

“They should give him credit,” Trump said of Netanyahu. “We really fought hard with Israel,” the president emphasized.

Trump's positive remarks came after his recent criticism of Netanyahu and the Israeli government's handling of the ongoing war with the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

During a bilateral meeting at the recent G7 summit in France with the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Trump said, “Israel’s fighting Hezbollah too long, and too many people are being killed. And you don’t have to knock down an apartment house every time you’re looking for somebody. Because there’s a lot of people in those apartment houses, and they’re not all Hezbollah, that I can tell you.”

“I suggested to Israel to let Syria take care of Hezbollah,” Trump said, adding that he believed Syria could potentially do a better job. He also referenced ongoing developments in Syria and his engagement with the country’s leadership, noting a shift in diplomatic relations despite the country’s prolonged civil war and its complex political situation.

Trump’s recent remarks were framed as an effort to ease tensions between Washington and Jerusalem over the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran to end the war. The agreement reportedly sets out a 60-day negotiating period aimed at reaching a more permanent arrangement, which the Trump administration has described as a mechanism to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions and promote regional stability. However, critics have raised concerns that the MOU provides significant economic relief in exchange for limited commitments and does not address Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support for regional terror proxies, including Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

On Friday, U.S. officials announced that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to renew the ceasefire. Washington is reportedly concerned that the fighting in Lebanon could undermine the agreement with Tehran. Hezbollah violated the ceasefire again less than 24 hours later by firing over 50 projectiles at Israeli soldiers. The Israeli military responded with strikes against Hezbollah targets. Lebanese media reported that at least five people were killed in the Israeli strikes but did not specify whether the fatalities were Hezbollah combatants or civilians.

Israel's Channel 12 News reported on Friday that Netanyahu had asked his former top aide Ron Dermer to defuse the political tensions between Washington and Jerusalem concerning the fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon.