Netanyahu and Trump ‘see eye to eye on Iranian threat’ — Israeli official
Scoop
Israeli PM supports Trump’s call for a deal to stop Tehran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon, with ‘consequences’ if diplomacy fails; Netanyahu views Trump's Gaza plan as serious, not a negotiating tactic
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump hold meetings during Netanyahu's first visit to Washington in Trump's second term on February 4, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports President Donald Trump’s return to a maximum-pressure sanctions campaign and an attempt to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, as long as there is a credible military threat if Iran does not comply, an Israeli diplomatic source told Jewish Insider following the leaders’ meeting in the White House this week.
In the meeting, Netanyahu conveyed to Trump that Israel may take “action” against Iran “if and when there won’t be a choice,” the source said on Thursday.
“The prime minister thinks that we need to bring back the policies of the first Trump administration, the maximum pressure strategy,” the source said. “We are in favor of putting as much pressure as possible on Iran.”
Trump signed an executive order to bring back the maximum-pressure sanctions regime aimed at “driving Iran’s oil exports to zero” earlier this week. He expressed a lack of enthusiasm about the sanctions, but said that “it’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
When asked by JI at the White House if he would support an Israeli strike on Iran, Trump was noncommittal, saying, “We’ll see what happens.” The following day, he wrote a Truth Social post in which he said he would “much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper. We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed … Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens, ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED.”
The Israeli source said that Netanyahu “was very clear in conversations with Trump — and President Trump said it too — that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”
The key is “heavy sanctions and economic and political pressure on Iran, with a credible military threat in case [the Iranian regime] doesn’t agree to give up on its nuclear weapons program,” the source added. “If the diplomatic and economic means do not work, there will be consequences. I think that President Trump and the prime minister made that clear.”
Asked if Trump’s public downplaying of the possibility of an Israeli strike undermines the credibility of the military threat, the source said that Netanyahu thinks “it’s fine to try [negotiations]. War is a means, not an end. If they can meet the end in other ways, then great. If not, the prime minister and the president see eye to eye on the Iranian threat and that has significance diplomatically and militarily.”
Trump has appointed figures in the Pentagon and State Department that have downplayed the Iranian threat and called for less American involvement in the matter. Michael DiMino, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East who has dismissed talk about the Iranian threat as “fearmongering” and “pablum,” was in the room when Netanyahu and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth met on Wednesday.
The Israeli source said that “if there are a few small fish with problematic views for Israel, we can deal with it. All the senior people support Israel very much. Yesterday, at the Department of Defense, we heard very warm and supportive things from Hegseth. That guy [DiMino] sat in the room and heard him. The spirit of his commanding officer is very clear.”
As for Trump’s proposed plan for Palestinians to evacuate Gaza and for the U.S. to take over, Netanyahu takes it seriously, the Israeli source said when asked if the announcement was a negotiating tactic.
“We believe that if Trump wants it, he can do it,” the source said. “We are accepting it as it was said. Trump has said it many times, and that is what we hope for.”
Netanyahu was not surprised by the plan, as it had been discussed before his visit to Washington, but the Israelis were “surprised by the way and the force with which it was presented.”
The details of the plan have yet to be worked out, the source added.
Asked about large numbers of Palestinian refugees possibly destabilizing Jordan and Egypt, the source said: “We want to preserve the monarchy in Jordan, because they are a buffer zone between us and the Shia crescent, Iran. At the same time, we saw that Jordan took in a large number of refugees from Syria and understand that they can take in some Gazans.”
“Egypt,” he said, “has a giant territory. And [Gazans] can go to other places, too. It doesn’t have to be only Jordan and Egypt. But we believe that they can contribute to this effort.”
Trump’s Gaza evacuation plan can be implemented concurrently with the current cease-fire, the Israeli source said.
“We don’t have to wait for the war to end for this to happen,” he said. “We can already transfer Gazans to other countries. That would be even better.”
Trump hinted at a similar timeline in a Truth Social post on Thursday: “The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting. The Palestinians, people like Chuck Schumer, would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
With three more hostages expected to be released on Saturday and talks continuing on phase two of the cease-fire deal, the source said that the deal is temporary and emphasized that Israel did not commit to ending the war in Gaza.
”I don’t think that bringing home all the hostages and eliminating Hamas are contradictory,” the source said. “We may extend stage one [of the deal] to maximize the number of living hostages released, if in stage two Hamas demands an end to the war and cannot make our security demands,” meaning that the terrorist group can no longer have control over Gaza or threaten Israel.
The Israeli source was confident that Trump would stand with Israel if it needs to continue fighting the war in Gaza to eliminate Hamas.
”We heard Trump say clearly that Hamas cannot remain in Gaza,” he said.