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Netanyahu’s office says he spoke with Trump, agreed to meet soon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump agreed to meet in the US in the near future during a phone call Friday, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The premier congratulated Trump on the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, and said that “the US is what ensures the freedom of the world, and Israel greatly appreciates the tight bond between the nations.”
Additionally, “Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump agreed to meet soon in the US,” the statement said.
The two spoke amid ongoing tensions over Washington’s peace negotiations with Iran, which Israel fears will lead to a deal that will be detrimental to its security, but also amid reports that Trump has considered returning to fighting with the Islamic Republic.
Last month, after weeks of negotiations, the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding to extend the ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and undertake 60 days of negotiations on a final deal covering Iran’s nuclear program. Israel was not a party to the deal and is not involved in the resulting negotiations, but its fight with Iran has also paused.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Trump had recently considered options for a return to full-scale war in Iran, but decided to instead focus on diplomatic efforts,
Trump has also told aides that it would not be a problem if a nuclear deal is not reached by the 60-day deadline on August 18, the newspaper said.
According to the report, which cited US officials, Trump held talks in the past few days with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine on whether the US should quit negotiations for a deal and instead carry out strikes.
Unnamed individuals described fresh attacks on the Iranian regime to the Journal as potentially “finishing the job.”
But on Thursday Trump said thought Iran had “agreed to just about everything we need” in negotiations over a final accord between the two countries.
Trump made the claim in a wide-ranging CNBC interview, in which he discussed, among other things, various aspects of the war with Iran and ongoing negotiations on a final deal.
Asked during the interview whether the war, which began with a shock US-Israeli offensive on February 28 before being halted by a temporary ceasefire on April 8, was at risk of turning into one of the so-called “forever wars” that he pledged to avoid, Trump denied that there was any chance of that happening.
“I think they’ve agreed to just about everything we need,” Trump said of Iran’s conduct in negotiations over a final accord between the two countries.
It was unclear what Trump was suggesting Iran had agreed to, given that talks on the final deal haven’t really begun yet due to disagreements over the vital Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran blocked early in the war, rocking the global economy.
“We’re negotiating, and we’ll see,” Trump said.
The president also asserted that “this is not a war per se. This is the denuking of Iran.”
“You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Iran, he said, is “a spoiled child” and the “bully of the Middle East.”
“You’ve had your way for many years with your parents, and all of a sudden they come down hard on you, it takes you a little while to get used to it,” he said. “They’ve had their way for 47 years.”
Trump claimed, as he has previously, that killing Iran’s leaders had led to more “rational” figures taking control, insisting that this met the definition of “regime change.”
“We’re on the third set of leaders, and we actually get along with them,” he said, referring to strikes that killed the predecessors to Iran’s current leadership. “I think they’re much more rational. By the way, I think that’s regime change, but I’m not looking for regime change. I’m looking for something very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
At the start of the war, Trump indicated that regime change was a goal, but he has since insisted that this was never a priority.
Netanyahu has distanced himself from the MOU and Israeli officials are bitterly opposed to the deal’s terms, which resolve none of the war’s key goals — notably, eliminating Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and creating the conditions for the fall of the regime.
Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
