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After Missile Test, War of Words Erupts Between Trump and Iran Trump Tells Israel to Hold Off on Building New Settlements
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — A day after the Trump administration put Iran on notice for its launch of a ballistic missile, a war of words erupted between the American president and the Iranian government, with President Trump insulting Tehran on Twitter and the Iranians responding in kind. WASHINGTON — President Trump, who has made support for Israel a cornerstone of his foreign policy, shifted gears on Thursday and for the first time warned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off new settlement construction.
A top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday that Iran would not be intimidated by threats from “an inexperienced person.” Mr. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, had warned Iran that it faced unspecified reprisals from the United States if it did not cease aggressive behavior toward its neighbors. “While we don’t believe the existence of settlements is an impediment to peace, the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal,” the White House said in a statement.
Mr. Trump echoed Mr. Flynn’s threat with a pair of early morning Twitter posts, in which he accused the Iranians of ingratitude for the nuclear deal negotiated with the West, which he asserted had rescued Iran from collapse. The White House noted that the president “has not taken an official position on settlement activity,” but said Mr. Trump would discuss the issue with Mr. Netanyahu when they meet Feb. 15, in effect telling him to wait until then. Emboldened by Mr. Trump’s support, Israel had announced more than 5,000 new homes in the West Bank since his Jan. 20 inauguration.
The hostile statements have raised tensions between Iran and the United States to their highest levels since the signing of the nuclear deal in 2015. Some analysts said they worried that the harsh words could further escalate hostilities, and even precipitate a military confrontation, if Iran tests America with another missile launch. The statement resembled those issued routinely by previous administrations of both parties for decades, but Mr. Trump has positioned himself as an unabashed ally of Israel and until now had never questioned Mr. Netanyahu’s approach. Mr. Trump picked as his ambassador to Israel a financial supporter of West Bank settlement, and he harshly criticized former President Barack Obama in December for not blocking a United Nations resolution condemning settlements.
The war of words with Iran came just hours after news had emerged of a combative phone call that took place on Saturday between Mr. Trump and Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, when Mr. Turnbull pressed the president to honor an American agreement to accept 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center. But Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition government seemed to take Mr. Trump’s inauguration as a starting gun in a race to ramp up its construction in the occupied territory. Since the president was sworn in, the government announced that it would authorize another 2,500 homes in areas already settled in the West Bank, and then followed that this week with an announcement of 3,000 more. On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu took it a step further, vowing to build the first new settlement in the West Bank in many years.
On Thursday morning, Mr. Trump told an audience at the National Prayer Breakfast, “When you hear about the tough phone calls I’m having, don’t worry about it.” He added: “We have to be tough. It’s time we’re going to be tough, folks. We’re taken advantage of by every nation in the world, virtually. It’s not going to happen anymore.” For Mr. Netanyahu, the settlement spree reflects a sense of liberation after years of constraints from Washington, especially under Mr. Obama, who like other presidents viewed settlement construction as harmful to the chances of negotiating a final peace settlement. It also represents an effort to deflect criticism from Israel’s political right for complying with a court order to force out several dozen families in the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona.
But the administration tried to contain the fallout from the disagreement with Australia. The Israeli housing ministry on Thursday announced tenders for 2,000 homes, which appeared to advance some of those announced earlier this week.
The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said Mr. Trump would not block the transfer, provided the migrants are subjected to “extreme vetting,” even though he was “extremely upset” by the agreement. Peace Now, an advocacy group that opposes settlement construction, accused Mr. Netanyahu of trying to shore up his political position at a time when he is under fire for the Amona evacuation and under investigation on corruption allegations.
“The president is unbelievably disappointed in the previous administration about the deal that was made,” Mr. Spicer said. But he added that Mr. Trump has “the ultimate respect for the prime minister and the Australian people.” And he contradicted news reports and previous characterizations by White House staff members that the call with Mr. Turnbull was combative. “Netanyahu must not let the two-state solution be the casualty of his fight for political survival,” the group said in a statement. “Yesterday’s announcement include the promotion of housing units deep in the West Bank and in highly problematic areas for a future agreement.”
The president himself waded into the issue later during comments at the White House, emphasizing that he would honor the Obama-era refugee agreement with Australia, if grudgingly. Mr. Netanyahu vowed earlier on Thursday to continue settlement construction in the West Bank. He made the comments while attending a memorial service marking fourth anniversary of the death of Ron Nachman, a founder and longtime mayor of the settlement of Ariel.
“I love Australia as a country,” Mr. Trump said, according to a press pool report. “But for whatever reason, President Obama said we’d take probably well over 1,000 illegal immigrants who were in prisons and take them into this country, and I just said, ‘Why?’” “There are perhaps 20,000 residents here today, and I promise you: There will be many more,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Just recently the government I head approved another 1,000 units, which means 5,000 people, and means significant growth. There is no way that Ariel will not be part of the State of Israel — it will always be part of the State of Israel.”
Mr. Trump said he would honor the agreement, noting that when a “previous administration does something you have to respect that, but you can also say why are we doing this.” The Ariel settlement bloc is considered one of those that Israel intends to keep in any eventual final settlement with the Palestinians, possibly in exchange for land elsewhere. But for the Palestinians, it is particularly problematic because its location in the heart of the West Bank would threaten the continuity of a future state.
There was no dispute over the growing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The White House statement on Thursday was gentler in tone than those in past administrations, while sending a similar message. The The White House went further in a statement given to The Jerusalem Post. Noting that Mr. Trump wants to reach a deal, an unnamed official told The Post that “we urge all parties from taking unilateral actions that could undermine our ability to make progress, including settlement announcements.”
In an early morning Twitter post on Thursday, Mr. Trump said, “Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile. Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!” The shift in position came hours after Mr. Trump met briefly with King Abdullah II of Jordan, who raced to Washington to appeal to the new president not to forgo Arab concerns over Israeli policy. In particular, Jordan has been concerned about Mr. Trump’s promise to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the city Israelis and Palestinians would divide and each make their capital in most versions of a peace deal.
In a second post, he said, “Iran was on its last legs and ready to collapse until the U.S. came along and gave it a life-line in the form of the Iran deal: $150 billion.” The king came to Washington with no meeting with Mr. Trump on the schedule, and some administration officials were leery of setting up such a meeting before Mr. Netanyahu’s visit. Instead, the king was hosted for breakfast on Monday by Vice President Mike Pence at his official residence. But in the end, the king was able to talk with Mr. Trump on the sidelines of the national prayer breakfast on Thursday morning.
Hours later, the Iranian supreme leader’s top adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, responded forcefully, saying, “This is not the first time that an inexperienced person has threatened Iran,” according to the semiofficial news agency Fars. “The American government will understand that threatening Iran is useless.” The White House had already slowed down the embassy move, saying that it was only beginning to consider it. Mr. Obama and other presidents declined to make such a move in part out of concern that it would set off a violent response and influence the terms of a final peace settlement.
A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry condemned Mr. Flynn’s comments about the missile test as “repetitive, baseless and provocative.” The spokesman, Bahram Ghasemi, even appeared to mock the language in the national security adviser’s statement.
“Instead of thanking Iran for its continued fight against terrorism,” he said, “the American government is practically helping the terrorists by claims about Iran that are baseless, repetitive and provocative.”
In the statement issued by Mr. Flynn on Wednesday, he said, “Instead of being grateful to the United States for these agreements, Iran is now feeling emboldened.”
Administration officials said they were considering a range of options if Iran defies the United States, but they have refused to detail them. Although Mr. Trump and Mr. Flynn both invoked the nuclear deal, the White House has been careful to distinguish Iran’s behavior in the region, which it condemns as destabilizing, from Iran’s adherence to the nuclear agreement. Iran’s missile tests would be judged through a separate United Nations Security Council resolution.
While Mr. Trump threatened during the campaign to rip up the deal, he has not repeated that threat since taking office. And administration officials have signaled that their focus is more on constraining Iran’s support of militant proxies in Yemen, Lebanon and elsewhere.