Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to strike Iran “whenever necessary” in defense of his country.

Getting into it: In a videotaped statement Monday, Netanyahu said Israel has “every right to self-defense” and will exercise it “to the full extent necessary,” even as he announced that Israel was holding its fire against Iran for now because Tehran had stopped attacking once it was struck. He warned that if Iran “makes the mistake and returns to attacking us, we will respond with force.” He also described the back-and-forth attacks with Iran over the weekend as a failed attempt to set new terms in negotiations, vowing it would not happen on his watch.

The defiant tone followed a public swipe from President Trump, who belittled the Israeli leader in remarks to the Financial Times, saying “I call the shots. I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots,” and predicting Israel “won’t have any choice” but to accept whatever deal ends the war. Trump had leaned on Israel to cool it so the US-Iran talks could survive, and, according to reports, Netanyahu eventually caved to Trump’s second demand to stand down.

This all comes after shit began to hit the fan last weekend when Israel breached the buffer zone with Lebanon to hit Hezbollah in Beirut, despite a US-brokered ceasefire, prompting Iran to fire its first missile barrage at Israel since the April truce. Israel struck back at military and economic targets inside Iran, including a petrochemical plant it said produces ballistic-missile materials, and both sides exchanged fire again Monday before pulling back.

Iran’s military announced it was standing down its attacks while warning that further “aggression and hostile acts” would draw “much more severe and crushing measures.”

Notably, Trump told Fox News an agreement could be signed within days, even as both leaders navigate domestic pressures, with Netanyahu facing fall elections and demands to hit back at Hezbollah, and Trump eyeing midterms in November.