‘In English, He Praises Trump’: Araghchi Says Netanyahu is a ‘Serpent’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Design: PC)

Key Takeaways

• Araghchi accused Netanyahu of deceiving the US into waging war against Iran on Israel’s behalf.
• He pointed to Netanyahu’s remarks about spending 1,000 hours on US television to “influence” American opinion.
• His comments follow reported concerns among Trump’s “America First” allies over Netanyahu’s push for further escalation against Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of manipulating the United States into entering the war against Iran, describing the Israeli leader as a “serpent” and pointing to his own public statements about influencing American opinion.

In a post on X, Araghchi said Netanyahu had spoken openly in Hebrew about his ability to influence Washington while adopting a markedly different tone when addressing the US president in English.

“Netanyahu explicitly laughs about how he ‘influenced’ America through 1,000 hours of airtime on US networks,” Araghchi wrote. “In English, he praises POTUS’ leadership,” he added.

Araghchi accused Netanyahu of having pushed the United States into waging a war against Iran on Israel’s behalf.

His remarks came amid continuing debate in the United States over Israel’s influence on the Trump administration’s Iran policy and concerns among some of the president’s political allies over further military escalation.

Araghchi has also recently accused “Israel-aligned actors” of promoting continued fighting through what he described as overly optimistic assessments of the war.

Concerns among Trump Allies

The latest remarks come after Politico reported in July that figures within the “America First” wing of the Republican Party were increasingly concerned that Netanyahu could push Trump toward deeper involvement in the war with Iran.

The report was published ahead of a White House meeting between Trump and Netanyahu and said the Israeli prime minister had previously helped persuade Trump to begin the war during an earlier face-to-face meeting.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon was among those publicly opposing Netanyahu’s influence on the administration’s Iran policy.

“Netanyahu has had twice as many visits to the White House in 18 months as Churchill had in all of World War II, with every one of them a disaster for America First,” Bannon said.

Curt Mills, executive director of The American Conservative, described the Trump-Netanyahu meeting at the time as “DEFCON 1,” saying Netanyahu would “argue for the essential logic of escalation.”

Opposition to Prolonged War

The concerns have coincided with growing domestic opposition to the economic costs of the war.

Polling cited in the report indicated that a growing segment of Trump’s political base did not believe the war was worth its economic costs, while Republicans increasingly expected the fighting to continue through the November midterm elections.

The US and Israel launched their war against Iran on February 28, prompting Tehran to respond with missile and drone attacks against Israel and US military facilities across the region.