Trump says decision to end Iran war will be made mutually with Israel

WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he will make the decision to end the US-Israeli war on Iran mutually with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"I think it’s mutual…a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account," Trump said when asked if Netanyahu would have a say in the decision during a short phone interview with the Times of Israel newspaper.

Trump declined to opine on the possibility that Israel could continue its attacks after the US stops its strikes, saying: "I don’t think it’s going to be necessary."

The White House said Friday that it expects the war to last four to six weeks, but that timeline has rapidly shifted over the past week, and Trump has repeatedly refused to put a specific timeline on his war.

Regional tensions have escalated since the US and Israel launched a large-scale attack on Iran on Feb. 28, killing more than 1,200 people including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over 150 schoolgirls and senior military officials.

Iran has retaliated with sweeping barrages that have targeted US bases, diplomatic facilities and military personnel across the region, as well as multiple Israeli cities. At least six US service members have been killed.

Iran's drone and missile attacks have continued to escalate, with reports indicating that Tehran has repeatedly fired missiles laden with cluster munitions at Israel.

Earlier Sunday, Iran’s Assembly of Experts announced that it selected Mojtaba Khamenei as the nation’s new supreme leader, succeeding his father, Ali Khamenei. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps quickly lent its support to Khamenei's appointment.

Trump said in a separate interview with ABC News that the junior Khamenei "is not going to last long" without his approval.

"He’s going to have to get approval from us," the US president said. "If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it."