Amid talks on the Iran deal, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump that Israel will maintain freedom of action against threats in Lebanon.
JerusalemIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump during a phone call on Saturday about an emerging deal between Washington and Iran that Israel will remain free to act against threats in Lebanon, an Israeli source said.
Trump said Washington and Iran have “substantially negotiated” a memorandum of understanding on a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been effectively closed since the US and Israel launched war on Iran in February.
“In last night’s conversation with President Trump, the prime minister stressed that Israel will maintain freedom of action against threats in all regions, including Lebanon, and President Trump reiterated and supported this principle,” the Israeli political source told Reuters on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hopes rose that a breakthrough could soon be reached in the three-month-old war after Trump said an emerging deal brokered by Pakistan would reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s Fars news agency said the draft states that the US and its allies will not attack Iran or its allies, and in return Iran undertakes not to launch preemptive attacks on them.
Prominent Israeli politician Benny Gantz said it would be a strategic mistake for Israel to accept a ceasefire in Lebanon, where its troops have entered to fight Iran-backed Hezbollah militias as part of a deal with Iran.
According to an Israeli source, the US is updating Israel on talks with Iran.
“President Trump made it clear that he will remain steadfast in negotiations on his consistent demand to dismantle the Iranian nuclear program and remove all enriched uranium from its territory,” the source said, “and that he will not sign a final agreement without meeting these conditions.”
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the conversation with Netanyahu went “very good.”
