'Crazy' phone call between Trump and Netanyahu complicates Iran talks

Donald Trump has become the latest US president to find himself at odds with Benjamin Netanyahu, after reportedly clashing with the Israeli prime minister over military action in Lebanon that has thrown Washington's Iran diplomacy into crisis.

Tehran responded to Israel's strikes on Lebanon by threatening to suspend talks with the US - a potential setback to Trump's efforts to extricate himself from an unpopular war with Iran.

Trump was asked by a journalist about an Axios report that he had called Netanyahu "effing crazy" and accused him of ingratitude during a phone call on Monday.

"I did," Trump told the Pod Force One podcast in an interview broadcast on Wednesday. "I wouldn't say angry. I was a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with ​Lebanon, you know."

Trump added: "I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him."

He would be far from the only US president to tangle with the Israeli PM. The prime minister has a long history of testing the White House's patience - and of politically surviving any fallout.

The latest reported clash came as Trump mulls a deal that would extend the US-Iran ceasefire and open the door to talks on the future of Tehran's nuclear programme.

The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz - a vital global shipping lane - is also at stake.