US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "stop bulshitting me" during their phone conversation on Thursday.
Several media reports, quoting Channel 12 news, stated that Biden's outburst came after Netanyahu told him that Israel was moving forward with negotiations on a hostages-for-ceasefire deal with Hamas and would soon send a delegation to resume talks.
At the end of the conversation, Biden reportedly said: "Don't take the president for granted."
The talks have been ongoing for many months without results and Biden had earlier said that Netanyahu was intentionally stalling any outcome for internal political reasons.
As per the reports, Biden commented in the context of Israeli-American cooperation in a potential all-out war with Iran and its proxies amid boiling tensions as Iran and its proxy groups vow revenge against the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
Responding to the Channel 12 news report, which did not cite any sources, Netanyahu's office said the prime minister does not comment on the content of his private discussions with the US president.
The premier “does not intervene in American politics and will work with whoever is elected president, and expects the Americans to also not intervene in Israeli politics,” the statement stated, reported Times of Israel.
Biden also contended that Haniyeh's assassination was "poorly timed, coming right at what the Americans hoped would be the endgame of the process", a US official told the New York Times.
Moreover, Biden also expressed concern that carrying out the operation in Tehran could trigger the wider regional war that he has been trying to avert.
During the conversation, Netanyahu denied that Israel was an obstacle to the truce talks and rejected Biden's contention that Haniyeh's killing on Iranian soil could sabotage efforts to reach a deal halting hostilities and freeing hostages, as per the NYT report.