Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he wants to immediately begin phasing out American financial support for Israel’s military in a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday night.
Netanyahu said he wants to draw that aid “down to zero” and do so during the current Congress, adding that he’s said this to President Donald Trump.
“I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have,” he said. “Because we receive – we receive $3.8 billion a year. And I – I think that it’s time that we weaned ourselves from the remaining military support.”
When asked about timing, Netanyahu said that he wants to start the process “now” and that he doesn’t “want to wait for the next Congress.”
TRUMP SAYS LATEST IRAN PEACE PROPOSAL IS ‘TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE’
The long-awaited interview came as the war in Iran drags on, with neither side caving to the desired points of the other. Netanyahu emphasized that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon during the interview, adding that Trump has told Netanyahu that he wants to “go in” and take Iran’s enriched uranium.
The comments came the same day that Trump rejected Iran’s latest peace proposal, calling it “totally unacceptable.”