As President Donald Trump continues to seek an exit to his deeply unpopular war against Iran, a foreign leader has been calling him “every day” to urge him to resume the fighting, and war skeptics inside the White House are scrambling to push back, an insider told the Financial Times.
The war has sent costs soaring in the United States and dealt Republicans a heavy blow during last week’s midterms. Vice President JD Vance blamed Republicans’ electoral losses squarely on the conflict, saying “The reason we lost is the war,” and Trump called that assessment “largely true.”
Nevertheless, a person briefed on the discussions who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Financial Times that Israeli interim Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been calling Trump “every day [to urge him to resume the war],” sparking pushback from war skeptics within the White House.
“Those who don’t want a war within the White House and outside have been trying to combat that,” the person said. “The regional leaders [in the Middle East] are telling [Trump] not to escalate and prioritise negotiations.”
Netanyahu’s push comes as his own grip on power slips.
In Israel’s Oct. 27 election, his coalition shrank from a peak of 68 seats to 53. Netanyahu is also the first sitting Israeli prime minister to stand trial for corruption, with Middle East analyst Yossi Mekelberg warning that Netanyahu’s policies are “very much intertwined with his corruption trial and retaining power,” and that “creating a crisis is not beyond the realm of possibility, including with Iran.”
Netanyahu, who has pushed for the United States to attack Iran since at least the 1990s, was also issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, being accused of intentionally targeting civilians and using starvation as a method of war in Israel’s ongoing military bombardment of Gaza, which countless human rights groups and a United Nations committee have labeled a genocide.
“Arab and Muslim leaders have also been alarmed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s persistent lobbying for Trump to mount a new offensive,” the Financial Times’ report reads. “There is consensus among Arab and Muslim leaders that any renewed escalation would plunge the region into a deeper crisis amid fears that the conflict would elicit a ferocious Iranian response that would target their states.”
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