President Donald Trump acknowledged calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "crazy" during a heated phone call Monday, saying he was "a little bit perturbed" that Israel's ongoing military operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon were dragging down progress toward a peace deal with Iran.

The remarks, released Wednesday in an interview with the New York Post's "Pod Force One," came the same day Israel and Lebanon agreed to renew a fragile ceasefire and establish "pilot" security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah fighters would be banned. But even as diplomats talked in Washington, Israeli strikes continued across southern Lebanon, including one that hit a car on a busy highway in Khaldeh, just south of Beirut.

The picture that emerges is one of a president willing to push an ally hard when the ally's military campaign threatens a broader strategic objective. Trump wants a deal with Iran. Israel's grinding fight with Hezbollah, Iran's most capable proxy force, keeps getting in the way. And the civilians caught between the two are paying the price.

A phone call with expletives, and a diplomatic clean-up

Trump did not deny the confrontational tone of his Monday call with Netanyahu. But he framed it as a frank exchange between allies, not a rupture.

In the New York Post interview, as the Associated Press reported, Trump said:

"We've worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him."

Netanyahu, for his part, appeared eager to smooth things over. In a CNBC interview, the Israeli prime minister said the two leaders sometimes have "tactical disagreements" but share "common goals" and "agree on the main things."

"He respects me. I respect him. We always find a way to work out our differences."

That's the diplomatic version. The underlying friction is real. Iran has insisted that any potential truce in its conflict with the United States must also address the fighting in Lebanon. Israel wants Hezbollah fully disarmed before it ends operations and withdraws troops from the dozens of villages and towns its forces now occupy south of the Litani River. Those two demands pull in opposite directions, and Trump is stuck in the middle, trying to close a deal with Tehran while his closest Middle Eastern ally pursues a military campaign that Tehran says must stop first.

Ceasefire renewed, but strikes continue

The diplomatic track moved forward Wednesday when ambassadors from Israel and Lebanon released a joint statement after a fourth round of U.S.-mediated talks at the State Department. The agreement renewed the ceasefire that first took nominal effect on April 17 and laid out conditions for progress.

The key language: the ceasefire "is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives" from areas south of the Litani River, roughly 20 miles north of the Israeli-Lebanese border. The Lebanese army would take full control of those areas. A new round of discussions was scheduled for the week of June 22, aimed at "reaching a comprehensive agreement."

The joint statement also took direct aim at Iran.

"All parties condemned Iran's attacks on countries in the region, and ongoing activities that undermine stability throughout the Middle East, whether through support for proxies and all other acts of aggression."

And it drew a clear line against outside interference in Lebanon's sovereignty:

"All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon's future hostage."

That language reads as a pointed message to both Hezbollah and Iran. Hezbollah, notably, is not part of the ambassadorial-level talks in Washington. The group continues to claim rocket and drone attacks against Israeli targets, and Iran-backed Hezbollah triggered the latest round of fighting on March 2 by firing rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran.

On the ground: 3,468 dead, 1.2 million displaced

While diplomats exchanged statements, the human toll kept climbing. The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon and displaced 1.2 million. Netanyahu's office reported that at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

Israeli strikes continued in and around Tyre and Nabatiyeh. Overnight strikes near Tyre killed four Syrians and two Palestinians. Israel warned Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that Hezbollah members were operating among them, prompting the Lebanese army to deploy to the Christian district.

The human cost showed up most vividly in the story of the Al-Abdallah family in Marwaniyeh. Two rockets hit their three-story home, killing six family members, including Hassan Al-Abdallah. The sole survivor was his 13-year-old nephew, Ahmed, who was thrown from the building by the force of the blasts.

Ahmed's uncle, Eissa Al-Abdallah, told the Associated Press by phone Tuesday that the boy had two broken legs and shrapnel wounds all over his body.

"What good is talking now? They are gone, and nothing will bring them back. This land costs blood."

That grief captures the gap between the diplomatic language in Washington and the reality in southern Lebanon. Ceasefire agreements mean little when rockets are still falling on family homes.

The Iran deal and the Strait of Hormuz

Trump's frustration with Israel's Lebanon campaign makes more sense when viewed through the lens of his broader Iran strategy. The president wants a deal, and he wants the Strait of Hormuz reopened for oil and natural gas shipments. He acknowledged that the strait might stay blocked through the Labor Day holiday on September 7, but expressed confidence the situation would resolve.

"I don't know. I mean, I think it could be (closed through Labor Day), but I think it's unlikely. I think that we'll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly."

Trump said Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is "involved" in the peace talks, adding that Khamenei is not doing well due to wounds sustained in an airstrike. Trump said of Khamenei: "They have a lot of respect for him." He also noted that some say Khamenei "is giving approval because that's the way it has been for a long, long time."

The president remained noncommittal on a timeline for settling the Iran conflict. But his public pressure on Netanyahu suggests he sees the Lebanon front as a solvable obstacle, one that Israel could help remove by pulling back, rather than a separate war requiring its own resolution.

Congress pushes back, but likely in vain

On Capitol Hill, the U.S. House approved a war powers resolution Wednesday by a narrow 215-208 vote that would halt U.S. military action against Iran. The vote reflected bipartisan unease with the scope of the administration's Middle East engagement.

But the resolution faces long odds. Trump would likely reject any measure from Congress that limits his commander-in-chief authority. The vote functions more as a political signal than a policy constraint, a way for members to register concern without actually changing the trajectory of events.

The strategic picture

Israel launched its invasion of southern Lebanon days after the March 2 escalation. The nominal April 17 ceasefire did not stop the fighting. Israel-Lebanon talks have been held at the ambassadorial level in Washington since the beginning of last month, but Hezbollah's absence from those talks raises an obvious question: can any agreement hold if the armed group doing the fighting isn't at the table?

Lebanon hopes to widen the scope of the ceasefire so it becomes comprehensive across the country. Israel wants Hezbollah disarmed first. Iran wants the Lebanon fighting included in any broader peace deal. And Trump wants all of it wrapped up fast enough to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and claim a signature foreign policy achievement.

Those goals aren't incompatible in theory. In practice, they require Hezbollah to do something it has never voluntarily done: lay down its arms and leave territory it considers its own.

Trump's willingness to lean on Netanyahu, publicly, with expletives, shows he understands that pressure must flow in every direction, including toward allies. That's not a betrayal of Israel. It's a recognition that allies sometimes pursue narrow tactical objectives at the expense of a larger strategic win. The question is whether Netanyahu will adjust, or whether the Lebanon campaign will grind on while the Iran deal window closes.

Diplomacy without accountability is just talk. Trump, at least, seems willing to make the phone calls that others won't.