Trump Urges Netanyahu to Scale Back Lebanon Strikes to Salvage Iran Truce

President Trump reportedly urges PM Netanyahu to reduce strikes on Lebanon to save the Iran ceasefire, despite Israel's record-breaking bombardment on Wednesday.

By: AXL Media

Published: Apr 9, 2026, 12:18 PM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from The Times of Israel

A High-Stakes Phone Call Amid Escalation

The diplomatic friction between Washington and Jerusalem intensified on Wednesday following a phone call between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to a senior administration official cited by NBC News, Trump explicitly asked the Israeli leader to scale back the campaign in Lebanon to avoid jeopardizing the "Islamabad Accord" negotiations. The request was made shortly after Netanyahu publicly doubled down on his commitment to "strike Hezbollah with force," creating a sharp contradiction between U.S. diplomatic goals and Israel's immediate military objectives. While the White House seeks to stabilize a two-week window for talks, Jerusalem appears focused on a rapid degradation of militant infrastructure before any long-term settlement is reached.

Disputed Scope of the Two-Week Ceasefire

The primary source of tension remains a fundamental disagreement over the geographical boundaries of the current truce. While the United States and Israel maintain that the ceasefire applies exclusively to the direct conflict with Iran, Tehran and Pakistani mediators have insisted that the agreement must cover "everywhere," including the Lebanese front. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has accused Washington of violating three separate clauses of the framework, specifically citing the continued strikes in Lebanon as a breach of faith. This "legitimate misunderstanding," as termed by Vice President JD Vance, has left the upcoming weekend negotiations in Islamabad on the brink of cancellation.

Discrepancy Between U.S. Claims and IDF Action

In a press briefing in Budapest, Vice President JD Vance stated that Israel had agreed to exercise restraint in Lebanon to facilitate a successful negotiation. However, military data from the ground tells a different story. Wednesday marked the single largest Israeli bombing campaign since the outbreak of the Iran war, with more than 100 targets struck in a 10-minute window in southern Lebanon and Beirut. The IDF reported that these strikes targeted Hezbollah’s strategic headquarters and rocket sites that were previously thought to be immune. The intensity of the bombardment suggested that rather than "checking itself," the Israeli military was accelerating its operational timeline.