Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of the Diplomatic-Security Cabinet meeting that Israel was maintaining "continuous contact" with the US on the Iranian issue, stressing that coordination between the sides was full.
"I speak with President Trump almost daily. My people and his people speak daily, including today, and I will also speak with President Trump tonight," Netanyahu said.
He said Israel and the US shared common goals regarding Iran. "The most important goal is to remove the enriched material from Iran, all the enriched material, and to dismantle Iran's enrichment capabilities," he said.
Netanyahu added that President Trump "believes he can achieve this one way or another," but made clear that Israel was preparing for every possibility. "We are prepared for any scenario, and that is also my instruction to the Israel Defense Forces and our security agencies," he said.
Trump: We will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon
In parallel with Netanyahu's statement, US President Donald Trump addressed the possibility of an agreement with Iran overnight, saying Tehran was interested in reaching understandings with Washington after, according to him, suffering a severe blow in the war. In an interview, Trump rejected the claim that Iran had "refused to surrender." "You don't know that. You don't know what's happening," he told the interviewer after being asked about the ongoing confrontation with Tehran.
Trump went on to claim that Iran had lost most of its military capabilities. "They had a fleet of 159 ships, and now every ship has been blown to pieces and is lying at the bottom of the sea. They had an air force, a lot of planes, and they have no planes. They have no air defense. They don't have any radar left," he said. According to Trump, Iran's missile array had also been significantly damaged. "Their missiles have mostly been destroyed. They may have 18 or 19 percent left, but not much compared with what they had," he claimed. Trump added that "all their leaders are dead," and said, "I think we won."
He said that even if the US stopped pressuring Iran now, "it would take them 20 years to rebuild." However, he made clear that, as far as he was concerned, the mission was not yet complete. "Now we have to get what we have to get. And if we don't do that, we'll have to take a very big step forward," he said. At the same time, Trump emphasized that positive talks had taken place between the sides over the past 24 hours. "We've had very good talks in the last 24 hours, and it's very possible we'll make a deal," he said.
Trump again made clear that, from the US perspective, the basic condition for any agreement was that Iran not possess nuclear weapons. "They can't have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple," he said.
Earlier this evening, Trump also commented on the Iranian issue. The US president said: "We are in a skirmish with Iran, and we are doing unbelievably well," Trump said. According to him, "We are doing as well as in Venezuela, although this is a bigger case. We are doing very well in Iran."
Trump again claimed that the Iranians were interested in reaching an agreement. "They want to make a deal, to negotiate," he said, making clear that the US would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. "We will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. We will not let that happen," he stressed.
He said the US was holding contacts with "people who very much want to make a deal," and that the question now being examined was whether the agreement would be satisfactory for Washington.
Trump later referred to the economic pressure on Iran, saying: "The blockade is unbelievable. It is like a wall of steel. The Iranians are getting nothing from any direction. They have no business."
Trump added that if Iran did not now agree to the terms, "it will agree shortly afterward." He concluded by saying that "the world is watching us as we do this, and we have the respect of the world, something we didn't have a few years ago."
