Amid US-Iran talks, Netanyahu says Iran's entire nuclear program must go

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, Reuters reports.

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 US 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 programs.

Israeli officials have long vowed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, an assertion Netanyahu repeated.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araqchi, said on Monday Tehran was confident it could thwart attempts to sabotage its foreign policy or dictate its course, adding that he hoped his US counterparts would be equally steadfast.

“What is striking (…) is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran,” Araqchi wrote on X, before warning that any strike on Iran would be immediately reciprocated.

Israel has not ruled out attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, despite President Donald Trump telling Netanyahu that the US was for now unwilling to support such an operation, Reuters reported on 19 April, 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 missiles.

An Iranian official told Reuters this month that Tehran saw its missile program as the main sticking point in US 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.

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