Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed President Donald Trump to escalate the war against Iran immediately after the US midterm elections on Tuesday. 

According to sources speaking with Axios, Trump and Netanyahu held a phone call on Saturday that officials described as “tough” or “direct.” Publicly, the President gave a less confrontational description of the conversation, saying he had a “very good talk with [Netanyahu].”

Netanyahu advocated for resuming attacks on Iran following the midterm elections, while Trump wanted to wait until the current round of diplomacy with Iran ends. In a phone interview with Axios on Monday, Trump said he was “in no rush” to make a decision on Iran. “One way or the other, we will do something, but there is no rush. We crippled them financially. They have no money, no gasoline and their people are getting very tired of it,” the President told the outlet. 

He went on to give a seemingly contradictory statement, saying Iran wanted to make a deal with the US more than ever, but was also showing no urgency to pursue diplomacy. “We are talking to them. It’s going fine. The problem with them is … they try and tap tap tap [us along].” Trump continued, “There’s less urgency [on the Iranian side] than you think there would be, but they want to make a deal more than they ever wanted.”

Axios reports that Trump is considering three options. The first is to make a deal with Iran, a position advocated for by Vice President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff. Netanyahu and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth are pushing Trump to take the second option and launch new strikes on Iran.

The third option, continuing the economic war, is supported by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Iranian negotiators have been meeting with Qatari mediators to develop a proposal to end the 9-month-long conflict. On Sunday, Foreign ⁠Minister Abbas Araqchi said that the talks were “ongoing and progressing.” The talks have resulted in an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. President Donald Trump downplayed the negotiations on Saturday, saying they were “going fine but you know they’re not very reliable.”

The President also threatened to attack Iran during public remarks on Saturday. “We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say, one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes,” he said.  

On Sunday, Trump said he expected the war to rapidly come to an end, with or without an agreement. “We’ve had such a victory, and we’ll put it away very soon, one way or the other,” Trump said. “Either they’ll make a deal, or we’ll just end it. … The job we’ve done is amazing.”

Araqchi said Iran was ready for “both defense and diplomacy.” He added, “We are doing our best in this process, and we hope that there is rationality on the other side so that they prioritize diplomacy ​over other paths.”