US President Donald Trump has rejected suggestions that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu manipulated him into launching the war on Iran, saying the decision was entirely his own, according to Al Jazeera.

“He tricked me? I’m the one that started it,” Trump says on ‘Pod Force One’, adding that he acted because “we can’t let them (Iran) have a nuclear weapon”.

Trump attributes the claims to political opponents. “They’re just the Dumbocrats. These are people that don’t know what they’re doing,” he says.

The US president adds that his concern over Iran’s nuclear programme dates back to his first term, when he withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under the administration of President Barack Obama.

“That pertains to Israel because they probably would have been the first one to get hit. I’ll tell you what, if it wasn’t for me, there would be no Israel right now.”