US President Donald Trump said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will 'do whatever I want him to do. He's a very good man," when asked about their relationship by reporters on the tarmac to Air Force One on Wednesday.
While praising Netanyahu, Trump took a swipe at Israeli domestic politics. "Don't forget he's a wartime Prime Minister, and he's not treated right in Israel, in my opinion... They have a president over there who treats him very poorly," he said.
When asked if they were on the same page on Iran, Trump said plainly, "Yeah."
Trump's confidence in Netanyahu's cooperation sets the stage for how the administration intends to handle the unfolding crisis with Tehran. Geopolitical stakes are at an all-time high, with Iran restricting traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz in response to the US-led naval blockage.
When asked about whether or not he'd consider a limited deal with Iran that covered just the Strait of Hormuz, he said, "We'd have to open the Strait; that would open immediately. We're gonna give this one shot. I'm in no hurry."
"Ideally, I'd like to see few people killed, as opposed to a lot. We could do it either way, but I'd like to see few people killed.
A chance to reach an acceptable agreement to end the war
"I just wonder whether or not they have the good of the people because some of the things they're doing, to me, means they don't have the good of the people, and they have to have the good of the people. There's a lot of anger now in Iran because people are living so badly. There's a lot of foment that we haven't seen before; so much, and we'll see what happens."
As critics voice concern that the administration's aggressive posture is dragging the US into another "forever war" in the Middle East, Trump dismissed the idea that negotiations are taking too long.
When asked whether it is taking longer than expected to make a deal with Iran, Trump responded, "Let's put it this way, you were in Vietnam 19 years. You were in Afghanistan and these other places 10 years. You were in Iraq, how long were you in Iraq, 12? 12 years. You were in Korea for 7 years. World War II was different; that was 4 years. I'm in for 3 months, and much of it has been ceasefire."
Just a day before this tarmac talk, Trump had ordered a massive military strike on Iranian power plants and infrastructure, only to cancel it "one hour away" from execution at the request of Gulf allies to give diplomacy one last window.
The Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia released a statement on Wednesday, saying "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia highly appreciated the US President Donald Trump's decision to give diplomacy a chance to reach an acceptable agreement to end the war, [and] restore the security and freedom of maritime navigation in the Strait of Hormuz."