Trump Defends Iran Deal and Criticizes Israel at the G7

In a wide-ranging press conference that was probably better received in Tehran than Tel Aviv, Donald Trump on Wednesday touted his preliminary peace deal with Iran, details of which the White House finally unveiled, and criticized Israel for being overzealous in attacking Lebanon.

The president’s remarks at the end of the G7 meeting in France highlight the difficult situation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finds itself in less than four months after roping the US into an open conflict with Iran.

Now that both Washington and Tehran seem eager to wrap up the war, Israel finds itself on the sidelines because it would love to keep going. After all, very few of its objectives have been met.

The Iranian regime remains in power and may even be more entrenched than before, it retains many of its missile capabilities, and not all that much has changed in terms of how close it is to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

One upside to the conflict for Israel’s own hardliners was that they got to attack Lebanon. However, the “memorandum of understanding” that Washington and Tehran have been negotiating would put a stop to that.

The very first paragraph of the document, which not only applies to the US and Iran but specifically also their allies, makes it clear that military operations there would stop and that the “territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon” would be ensured.

While that already doesn’t sit well with Israel’s leaders, they will have been even less enthusiastic about the tenor of Trump’s press conference.

For example, while the president issued his usual threats of impending doom that Iran faces if its leaders don’t hold up their end of the bargain, he also defended its right to retain conventional missiles.

“I mean, they have to have some, because other people have some,” he said. “You got to have some.”

He added that other countries in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, also have these types of weapons, and he played down their potential for destruction.

“Missiles, they hurt a little location, but they don’t blow up the planet,” Trump said.

Conversely, while the president praised Israel as a “terrific” partner, he said it could do “a much better job with [the terrorist group Hezbollah].”

Specifically, he said Netanyahu “gets a little excited sometimes” and framed Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon as an overreaction.

“I’m not saying they shouldn’t protect themselves. I’m saying when two drones are shot into the desert and drop harmlessly, you don’t have to knock down buildings in Beirut,” Trump said. “They could behave better, and frankly, they could do a better job.”