Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had a “very friendly, warm and important” discussion with Donald Trump last weekend, during which he told the president-elect that Israel needed to “complete its victory” over Hamas and Hezbollah.
In a statement on the Trump phone call Netanyahu repeated his consistent threat to Iran. Israel, he said, “will continue acting against you as much as necessary, on any front and at any time.”
The meeting occurred shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that the incoming Trump team is weighing airstrikes on Iran to stop the country’s nuclear program. The paper noted that a military option is under “more serious review” as a result of Bashar Assad’s government falling in Syria and Hezbollah suffering major losses in Lebanon.
When asked about the story by a reporter, Trump declined to answer directly.
“Am I going to do preemptive strikes on Iran? Is that a serious question?,” said Trump. “How could I answer a question like that? How could I tell you a thing like that now?”
Trump recently told Time that “anything could happen” in regards to Iran.
According to the Wall Street Journal report, Trump officials are also working on a “maximum pressure 2.0” plan, that would strengthen sanctions on Iran.
These sentiments have been echoed by a number of Trump’s cabinet selections.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump’s national security adviser pick Mike Waltz declared that there would be a “huge shift” on Iran after Republicans return to the White House.
“We have to constrain their cash,” said Waltz. “We have to constrain their oil. We have to go back to maximum pressure, number one, which was working under the first Trump administration.”
Trump’s transition team told VOA Persian that the administration wouldn’t rule out any course of action on Iran.
“The Trump administration is committed to reestablishing peace and stability in the Middle East,” said Trump spokesperson Brian Hughes. “President Trump will keep all options on the table as it relates to the Iran Regime, including Maximum Pressure.”
Alex Pfeiffer, another transition team spokesperson, told CBS News that Trump’s FBI Director pick Kash Patel “was a key part of the first Trump administration’s efforts against the terrorist Iranian regime and will implement President Trump’s policies to protect America from adversaries.”
“The U.S. is ready for a return to President Trump’s MAXIMUM PRESSURE campaign against Iran,” tweeted Trump’s US Ambassador to the United Nations pick Elise Stefanik last month. “For too long, our enemies have been emboldened by the weakness of the Biden-Harris Administration. With President Trump in charge, Peace through Strength is back.”
Last week Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that the U.S. goal in the Middle East wasn’t just to reach an end to the conflict in Gaza, but assure that Hamas “is utterly and completely defeated.” Cruz said he believed that defeat would be delivered by Trump, thus dealing an “enormous blow to Iran as well.”
Like most issues facing the country, it’s difficult to discern what Trump thinks personally as his public comments have been all over the place. In September he seemed to imply that he’d be open to returning to the Iran Nuclear Deal, despite the fact that he destroyed the agreement during his first term and has consistently criticized it. “We have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible,” he told POLITICO.
That same month he threatened to blow Iran’s largest cities to “smithereens” if the country was involved in any plots to harm a U.S. president or presidential candidate.
During a phone call with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Director-General Rafael Grossi this month, Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the country was prepared to cooperate with the United Nations’s nuclear regulations.
Elliott Abrams, Trump’s special representative for Iran during his first term, has called on his more hawkish picks to steer the future president away from any sort of deal.
“I’m just hoping that people like Waltz and [Trump Secretary of State pick Marco] Rubio will say to the president when he becomes president again, this is the Iranian game,” said Abrams. “Don’t fall for it.”
Quincy Institute co-founder Trita Parsi told NatSec Daily that Iran might take a different approach to Trump than it did during his first term.
“The Iranians have concluded, perhaps not openly, that they made a mistake during the Trump years,” said Parsi. “They rejected him for a variety of reasons. They didn’t know how to handle it, but it left Trump in a situation in which it became much easier for the Israelis, for the neocons, for the hawks, to convince Trump the only way to get a deal with the Iranians is that you have to sanction them to death.”
Judging by the way he is treating Canada, the Iranians would be foolish to trust anything Trump says, any “deal” that he offers.
I’ve come to HATE every single of these WAR MONGERS!!! Mal rayo los parta!