Trump says Israel will be 'scaling back' attacks on Lebanon after appeal to Netanyahu

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reduce strikes on Lebanon, and was assured that Israel would be "scaling back" operations.

"I spoke with Bibi and he’s going to low-key it. I just think we have to be sort of a little more low-key,” Trump said during a brief telephone interview with NBC News.

The president announced a two-week ceasefire Tuesday with Iran after more than one month of war that rapidly spread across the region. Delegations from the US and Iran are slated to convene Saturday for negotiations in Islamabad, Pakistan, that seek to broker a definitive end to the conflict.

Trump said he is “very optimistic” that a peace deal will be struck.

The president struck an upbeat note ahead of the meeting, saying Iran's leaders “talk much differently when you’re at a meeting than they do to the press. They’re much more reasonable."

“They’re agreeing to all the things that they have to agree to. Remember, they’ve been conquered. They have no military," he told NBC. “If they don’t make a deal, it’s going to be very painful."

The Israeli military escalated attacks across Lebanon despite the two-week Washington-Tehran ceasefire brokered by Pakistan.

Israel carried out one of its largest strikes in Lebanon on Wednesday since launching a military offensive against Hezbollah early last month. The attacks have killed at least 254 people and wounded 1,165, according to Lebanon’s Civil Defense.

The escalation has raised concerns about a potential renewed Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, possibly extending to the Litani River.