Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday repeated calls for Iran's entire nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled, as Washington and Tehran engage in talks for a nuclear accord.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, at Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, April 24, 2025. Maya Alleruzzo/Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday repeated calls for Iran's entire nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled, as Washington and Tehran engage in talks for a nuclear accord.
The United States and Iran have so far held three rounds of indirect talks, mediated by Gulf state Oman, aimed at sealing a deal that would block Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but also lift crippling economic sanctions imposed by Washington.
After talks in Rome earlier this month, Oman said that the U.S. and Iran were pursuing an accord that would see Tehran "completely free" of nuclear weapons and sanctions but "maintaining its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy."
Netanyahu said the only "good deal" would be one that removed "all of the infrastructure" akin to the 2003 agreement that Libya made with the West that saw it give up its nuclear, chemical, biological and missile programmes.
Israeli officials have long vowed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, an assertion Netanyahu repeated.
Israel has not ruled out attacking Iran's nuclear facilities in the coming months despite President Donald Trump telling Netanyahu that the U.S. was for now unwilling to support such an operation, Reuters reported on April 19, citing an Israeli official and two other sources familiar with the matter.
Netanyahu, speaking late on Sunday in Jerusalem, said that he had told Trump that any nuclear agreement reached with Iran should also prevent Tehran from developing ballistic missile.
An Iranian official told Reuters this month that Tehran saw its missile programme as the main sticking point in U.S. talks.
Iran in April 2024 and again in October 2024 attacked Israel with drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles after Israel had killed Iranian generals and officials from Iranian proxies.
"We are in close contact with the United States. But I said, one way or the other, Iran will not have nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said at a conference organised by the Jewish News Syndicate, referring to a conversation he had with Trump.
Reporting by Alexander Cornwell
Maronite Patriarch Béchara Raï reiterated his support Sunday for the US-brokered framework agreement signed between Lebanon and Israel in late June, describing it during his Sunday homily as a "national path to resolving outstanding issues, consolidating a just, comprehensive and lasting peace, and preserving the state's sovereignty over its entire territory."
President Donald Trump said late on Saturday the U.S. would hold off on a fresh attack on Iran as long as a deal could be reached quickly to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
US embassies in Jerusalem, Baghdad and Amman issued security alerts Saturday urging American citizens to exercise "heightened vigilance," as tensions flare between Iran and the United States. Americans were also told to "consider departing, or be prepared to depart should there be escalation."
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