Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that a US diplomatic deal with Iran would work only if Tehran’s civilian nuclear facilities are “blown up” under the supervision of the US, terms that would be a non-starter in negotiations with Tehran.
“We agree that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. This can be done by agreement, but only if this agreement is Libyan-style: They go in, blow up the installations, dismantle all of the equipment under American supervision and carried out by America—this would be good,” Netanyahu said in a video statement a day after meeting with President Trump.
Netanyahu’s mention of Libya refers to when former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to dismantle his nuclear weapons program in 2003 and allowed inspectors to verify his progress. Only eight years later, in 2011, Gaddafi was brutally killed by US-backed militants after a NATO airstrike hit his convoy amid a US-NATO bombing campaign.
President Trump has previously criticized John Bolton, his former national security advisor, for suggesting a “Libya-style” model for disarming North Korea back in 2018. “What would Bolton, one of the dumbest people in Washington, know? Wasn’t he the person who so stupidly said, on television, ‘Libyan solution,’ when describing what the US was going to do for North Korea? I’ve got plenty of other Bolton ‘stupid stories,'” Trump said in a 2020 tweet.
In his video statement on Tuesday, Netanyahu also threatened military action if a deal isn’t reached and said he and Trump spoke about the possibility. “The second possibility—that will not be—is that they drag out the talks, and then there is the military option. Everyone understands this. We spoke about this at length,” he said.
President Trump has threatened to bomb Iran if a deal on its nuclear program isn’t reached, even though US intelligence agencies have recently reaffirmed there’s no evidence Tehran is working toward a nuclear weapon.
The US has also undertaken a significant military buildup in the Middle East, which has included the deployment of B-2 bombers that could be used to strike Iran. The buildup comes amid a heavy US bombing campaign in Yemen, which the Trump administration is threatening to escalate.
Amid the tensions, the US and Iran are set to hold high-level negotiations in Oman this Saturday. Iran has made clear it’s willing to reach a deal on its nuclear program but is warning against US military threats.
Israel Hayom reported that Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli delegation that visited the US were unaware of the plans for the US and Iran to open negotiations. The report said that Netanyahu learned about the scheduled talks right before he and Trump addressed the media together in the Oval Office. “The shock was visible on people’s faces,” one source in the delegation said.
