Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued his first public response to reports of an emerging US-Iran agreement to end the war, declaring that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.”
The message was posted on X on Sunday alongside an AI-generated image of Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump, Ada Derana reported citing CNN.
The statement followed a Saturday phone call between Trump and Netanyahu, which came amid reports of progress toward a US-Iran memorandum of understanding. Israeli officials had voiced concern that a limited deal — focused on extending the ceasefire and reopening the Strait of Hormuz — would fail to address Israel’s core demands: Iran’s nuclear programme and its stockpile of enriched uranium.
According to an Israeli official cited in the report, Trump reassured Netanyahu that he would “stand firm” in negotiations, insisting on the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear programme and the removal of all enriched uranium from Iranian territory. Trump was said to have indicated he would not sign a final agreement unless those conditions were met.
The intervention exposes a potential gap between Washington and its closest regional ally over the scope of any settlement. Trump said early Sunday that an agreement involving the US, Iran and several Middle Eastern countries had been “largely negotiated,” with the Strait of Hormuz to reopen to pre-war traffic over 30 days under the proposed framework. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in New Delhi that “good news” could come “within hours.”
Netanyahu’s emphasis on the nuclear file underscores Israel’s position that reopening the strait and extending the truce are insufficient without a verified rollback of Iran’s enrichment capability — the issue that triggered the US-Israel joint strike earlier in the crisis.
