‘Why didn’t you tell me?’: Trump snaps at Netanyahu over Iran nuclear intelligence

Trump-Netanyahu Iran intelligence tensions surfaced as the US President criticised the Israeli leader while reaffirming Washington's stance on Iran's nuclear program.

trump netanyahuPresident Donald Trump listens as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/ File)

US President Donald Trump publicly rebuked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over reports that he planned to brief Washington on alleged Iranian nuclear activity, saying, “Why didn’t you just tell it to me?” The remarks exposed rare public tensions between the two allies even as the US continues to monitor Iran’s nuclear programme.

During an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Trump pushed back on Netanyahu ahead of a meeting with the Israeli leader at the White House, underlining a strain in the relationship as the US President downplayed pressure to escalate conflict with Iran.

Trump dismisses intelligence sharing

When asked by a Fox News journalist about reports of Netanyahu’s plan to share intelligence related to Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, Trump said, “I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi is telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.”

Military tracking and potential strikes on nuclear site

Trump said the United States military is closely tracking Iran’s nuclear program and reiterated his threat to strike Pickaxe Mountain, Tehran’s nuclear site that lies at least 100 metres beneath the rocks near the damaged Natanz nuclear enrichment complex. Trump said on Tuesday that America would probably strike the area “pretty soon” and “very heavily.”

“I heard Bibi announce that. I said, ‘Why didn’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?” the president said hours before his meeting with the Israeli prime minister in the Oval Office.

Talking about Pickaxe Mountain, Trump said that he knows exactly “what is going on at Pickaxe” and declared it as “not a big problem,” Fox News reported.

Diplomacy vs escalation in West Asia

Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump comes days after the US military halted strikes on Iran and the Trump administration said that it is negotiating with the Iranian counterparts to strike a deal.

Trump has previously said that he would escalate military combat if negotiations with Iran fail. The US and Israel launched a joint strike on Iran on February 28, and the hostilities in West Asia have continued for the past five months.

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