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President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave a brief update on a phone call he held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, amid murmurs that the Middle Eastern nation is considering unleashing missile strikes on Iran.
“I’ve just spoken to Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, relative to numerous subjects including Trade, Iran, etc. The call went very well—We are on the same side of every issue,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The president’s stance on Iran since taking office has been broadly simple: he does not want to see the country obtain a nuclear weapon. Last week in a bilateral meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, he noted, “Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon, it’s pretty simple.”
He explained then that he wasn’t “in a rush” to back strikes on Iran because the people there have “a chance to have a great country, to live happily, without death, and I’d like to see that – that’s my first option.”
Trump added that the “second option…would be very bad for Iran.”
According to The New York Times, Israel had recently put together plans to strike Iranian nuclear facilities as early as next month, but were reportedly waved off by the Trump administration.
Per the outlet, “But in his second term, eager to avoid being sucked into another war in the Middle East, he has opened negotiations with Tehran, giving it a deadline of just a few months to negotiate a deal over its nuclear program.”
Rumblings of rising tensions in the already-difficult situation between Iran and Israel have not necessarily improved amid terrorist group Hamas’ decision to reject a deal that would free at least half of the remaining Israeli hostages, according to YNetNews.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was committed to ensuring Iran did not obtain nuclear weapons during a recorded statement regarding the current diplomatic efforts, via this report. “If not for the severe blows we dealt to the Iran axis, the Middle East would look very different. I am committed to preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons—I have not given up on that, not let go of it and will not back down,” he said.
