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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pressuring US President Donald Trump for a quick resumption of the US-Israeli war against Iran after this week’s US elections, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The United States and Israel launched a major offensive against Iran in February, and Mideast officials warned over the weekend that renewed fighting would likely be more intense than previous ones, which destabilized the region and caused turmoil in international energy markets.
In a phone call Saturday, Netanyahu urged Trump to return to fighting after Tuesday’s midterm elections, but the U.S. president has yet to make a decision, according to two people familiar with the matter.
“The US is giving diplomacy one last chance to succeed, and the Netanyahu government really doesn’t want to see a deal – they want a military solution to the Iran problem,” one of the sources said.
A US official confirmed that the two men had spoken and that Netanyahu, who is fighting to stay in power after inconclusive elections in Israel last week, wanted a resumption of hostilities but that Trump was “not there yet”. Details of the call were first reported by Axios.
Trump, who said last week he had “a decision to make” about launching another military offensive, has already attacked Iran twice while his administration was in talks with Tehran.
Regional mediation efforts, led by Qatar, attempted to broker an interim deal between the United States and Iran, based on a version of a seven-day Iranian plan presented to the United Nations General Assembly last month. Iranian officials held talks with mediators in Doha over the weekend, after a team of Qatari negotiators held a day of negotiations Friday in Tehran.
Under the proposal, Iran would allow free movement of ships through the Strait of Hormuz if the United States lifted the blockade of Iranian ports, allowed Tehran to export oil and granted it access to some of its frozen assets held abroad.
The parties would then resume negotiations on a final agreement. But there have been limited signs of progress as Washington and Tehran, who harbor deep distrust of each other, argue over the sequencing and fate of Iran’s 440kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The United States wants Iran to agree to a schedule of visits by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to its main nuclear facilities, where Tehran’s stockpiles would be stored, sources briefed on the negotiations said.
The Trump administration has also repeatedly insisted that Iran abandon its nuclear stockpile and transfer it abroad. But Iranian officials publicly reject such a move.
A person briefed on mediation efforts to reach a deal said the United States and Iran wanted a deal and were showing signs of more flexibility, but it was still unclear whether diplomatic efforts would be able to bridge the differences. The mediators were pushing for Trump to allow more time for diplomacy, the person added.
Iranian officials have warned that the republic will launch a fierce response to any new attacks, but are also keeping the door open to diplomacy.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Monday that “if Iran’s demands are met, it would be possible to restore security in the Strait of Hormuz and start the negotiation process in a short time.”
He added: “As far as we are concerned, the exchange of messages is still ongoing. » Iran has already communicated its “legitimate demands” to the American side and it is now up to the United States to make a decision, he said.
An Israeli military official, briefed on the initial findings of a preliminary intelligence assessment, said recent intercepts and surveillance had led the IDF to believe the current round of negotiations had the potential to produce enough progress to convince the United States to delay strikes, at least momentarily.
Additional reporting by Bita Ghaffari in Tehran
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