President Donald Trump called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday as Israel weighed how to respond to Iran’s missile barrage and bluntly asked him not to retaliate at all, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
But when the White House realized Netanyahu wasn’t going to ignore a direct attack on Israel, Trump changed his tone. Sources familiar with the call said the president asked that any response be limited and not lead to escalation. Trump hoped to contain the fighting so it wouldn’t derail his efforts to broker a peace deal with Tehran.
After several rounds of tit-for-tat strikes—during which Israel hit a petrochemical facility in Iran and Iran threatened to target energy infrastructure across the region—another call took place this morning. In that conversation, sources said, Trump asked Netanyahu to stop the attacks, and the prime minister agreed.