Unknown details about the imminent risk of all-out war. Trump warned Netanyahu directly on the phone: “Bibi, be careful”

US President Donald Trump told Axios in an interview published on Monday that he warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would find himself fighting alone if Israel re-enters the war with Iran, writes Reuters.

“I told him: 'Bibi (the nickname of the Israeli prime minister, no), be careful, or you will wake up very soon on your own,'” Trump told Netanyahu, according to the American publication.

The past 24 hours have highlighted the risk that the United States will again be involved in large-scale military operations in the Middle East, despite President Trump's clear desire to withdraw from the protracted conflict, Axios wrote.

On Monday, Trump appeared to have succeeded in pulling Israel and Iran back from the brink of continued war, but it is unclear for how long.

100 days after the conflict began, Trump has yet to secure an increasingly elusive deal to end the war and has spent the past 24 hours trying to avoid a full-scale resumption, according to sources in Washington cited by the US publication.

Trump found himself in a dilemma, Axios claims. On the one hand, the American leader understood that it would be almost impossible for his key ally, Benjamin Netanyahu, to let a missile attack from Iran go unanswered. On the other hand, he was worried that Israel's retaliation would lead to all-out war.

Trump specified for the American publication, in a telephone interview, that he warned the Israeli prime minister that if he went to war with Iran again, then he could find himself fighting alone.

What happened over the weekend

The escalation began on Sunday morning when Israel struck a target of the Shiite group Hezbollah in Beirut.

An Israeli source said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) notified CENTCOM (the US military command responsible for operations in the Middle East) before the attack in Beirut, but not the White House. A US official said Trump – who put the brakes on a similar planned Israeli attack during a tense call days earlier – was unhappy about the attack.

Iran then fired missiles at Israel, as it had promised to do if Israel struck the Lebanese capital. Some members of the Israeli military thought it was a baseless threat.

From that point on, things escalated quickly.

Behind the scenes details

Trump called Netanyahu on Sunday night and asked him not to retaliate, a US official said.

Trump claimed that he would either reach a deal with Iran within days, which would make the attacks unnecessary, or he would fail — in which case he could lead the attacks on Iran himself, an Israeli source familiar with the content of the phone conversation between the two leaders said.

Two U.S. officials and a third Israeli source said the discussion was much calmer than a week ago, when Trump called Netanyahu “freaking crazy.”

One U.S. official described Sunday's call as “polite,” while a second U.S. official noted that “no one yelled.”

The other version

The Israeli source said Netanyahu argued that not responding to the Iranian attack would be bad for Israel, bad for the US and bad for the deal Trump is trying to negotiate.

Netanyahu's argument was that inaction would send the message that Iran has the upper hand and can deter the US and Israel from taking military action.

But the phone call ended without a clear decision from Netanyahu. Some US officials who participated in the call believed that the US president had managed to buy more time.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, felt that while Trump opposed the retaliatory bombing, “it was not a firm 'No,'” the Israeli source said.

“There's no way Bibi interpreted what the president told him as an agreement. He was told specifically that the president (Trump, nr) doesn't support it, but he's doing what he's doing,” a US official said.

After meeting with his security chief and IDF commanders, Netanyahu informed the White House that he had decided to go ahead with the strikes.

Trump said in the interview that Israel “notified us very late” about Sunday's attacks. “They were already about to happen. But in the end, I was able to limit (Israeli bombing, no),” Trump said.

An Israeli official confirmed that Netanyahu and other Israeli officials held talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday evening to reach an agreement on which targets would be attacked.

Details of the attack

Israel struck a key component of Iran's largest petrochemical facility and other targets in Tehran.

This prompted Iran to launch a new “barrage” of missiles, this time at Tel Aviv.

Two more rounds of attacks and counterattacks took place on Monday morning, bringing the situation dangerously close to all-out war.

Although the US military did not participate in the Israeli strikes, it did help the IDF intercept incoming Iranian missiles, two US defense officials said.

Trump also told Axios that he had received calls from five different countries in the region asking him to pressure Netanyahu to stop.

“These countries were very concerned. They really like the deal we negotiated,” the US president said.

Trump also said his administration received messages Monday morning from the Iranians expressing their willingness to stop attacks if Israel did the same.

“They (the Iranians, no) called us and told us they were not going to launch any more attacks and asked us to tell Israel not to launch any more attacks,” Trump said.

Friction point

Israel was preparing for its biggest series of attacks on Iran since April, with dozens of sensitive targets to be struck on Monday, according to two Israeli officials. Trump called Netanyahu and asked him to stop the attacks.

“I said, 'Baby, you better be careful, or you're going to be on your own very soon,'” Trump told Axios.

An Israeli source said there were disagreements during the call, but it ended with Netanyahu agreeing to step back if the Iranians did not attack.

After the call, Netanyahu told his top military commanders to call off the strikes.

During the interview, Trump once again asserted that Iran wants a deal and that a deal could be signed soon — a claim the White House leader repeated several times during the two-month truce.

“This (deal, no) will prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and stop enriching uranium. It's a phenomenal deal. We're getting everything we wanted,” Trump previously claimed.

Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf said Trump's recent claims about the draft memorandum of understanding contradicted what had been agreed, adding: “We don't trust the other side.”

Ghalibaf also claimed that Iran was able to establish new rules in Lebanon through diplomatic and military pressure. He stated that Tehran's objective is to end the war, not to normalize relations with America.

The conclusion of the quoted American publication is that US and Israeli sources say that the events of the last 24 hours are further evidence that the strategic interests of the United States and Israel – as well as the political interests of Trump and Netanyahu – are drifting further apart by the day.

“Bibi needs the war to continue to stay politically alive in Israel, and Trump needs the war to end to stay politically alive in the US,” one US official said.