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As President Donald Trump signals progress toward a potential deal with Iran, Israeli officials and analysts are increasingly outlining what they believe Jerusalem should include in any deal to prevent Tehran from rebuilding its military and regional power.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel and the United States remain in “full coordination” and negotiations are continuing.
“We share the same objective, and the most important objective is to remove all enriched material from Iran, all enriched material, and destroy Iran’s enrichment capabilities,” Netanyahu said at the opening of a security cabinet meeting.
US and Iran clash over uranium enrichment as nuclear talks resume in Rome
Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran on April 29, 2024. (Morteza Nicoubzal/Nurfoto via Getty Images)
“We’ve had a very good conversation over the last 24 hours and it’s very possible that we will reach a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Trump also warned that if the talks fail, ‘we will have to take a big step forward.’
For Israel, the question is not only whether the war is over, but also whether Iran will emerge from the negotiations weaker or ready to rebuild. Israeli officials fear that a weak agreement could allow Tehran to preserve strategic capabilities, gain economic breathing space and ultimately restore the regional network of armed groups that threatened Israel before the war. Jerusalem is also seeking guarantees that military advantages and freedom of action would be preserved in any future deal if Iran violates its commitments.
Against that backdrop, Israeli analysts say Jerusalem’s red lines focus on four main areas: destroying Iran’s enrichment infrastructure, restricting its ballistic missile program, preventing Tehran from rebuilding Hezbollah and Hamas, and ensuring the regime does not gain political legitimacy or strategic relief from negotiations.
no promotion, no sunset
On the nuclear issue, Israel’s former national security adviser Yaakov Amidror said Israel’s position remains uncompromising.
“Weaponized uranium must leave Iran,” Amidror said. “The Iranians should not be allowed to enrich uranium.”
Israeli journalist and commentator Nadav Eyal agreed, saying Israel was seeking a much stricter framework than previous agreements.
“Israel wants Iran to stop enrichment for as long as possible and for the enriched material to leave Iran,” Eyal said. He said Jerusalem is “looking for an arms control agreement that will be comprehensive and strong.”
A declassified image released by US Central Command showing attacks on Iran. (US Central Command/Reuters)
Avner Golov, vice president of the Mind Israel think tank, told Fox News Digital that Israel also wants Iran’s underground nuclear infrastructure to be completely destroyed.
“In the nuclear sector, what matters is the removal of enriched material, the destruction of underground facilities, including those still under construction, and a ban on new sites,” Golov said.
Golov also warned against a “sunset clause”, which would allow sanctions to expire after several years.
“There must be an agreement without sunset,” he said, calling for “unprecedented monitoring and supervision anywhere, in any situation and should not be dependent on Iranian sanction.”
Jonathan Ruhe, a fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) for American Strategy, told Fox News Digital, “Ultimately the United States and Israel must have firmly in place the same limitations to an acceptable agreement,” he said, which includes “completely, permanently and verifiably shutting down Iran’s nuclear weapons program.”
Ruhe said it goes beyond handing over highly enriched uranium to Iran and also includes closing the remaining enrichment-related facilities at Pickaxe and Isfahan.
The UN nuclear agency’s Iran policy is getting mixed reviews from experts after the US-Israel destruction of nuclear sites.
President Donald Trump speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on October 13, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Missiles are seen as an equal threat
Along with the nuclear issue, Israeli analysts say Iran’s ballistic missile program has become equally central to Israel’s security concerns.
“One of the main questions is whether there will be any kind of limits on the Iranians’ ballistic missile program,” Eyal said. “Israel sees this as no less an existential threat than the nuclear issue.”
Amidror warned that without missile sanctions, the threat could eventually extend beyond Israel and Europe.
He warned, “If there are no restrictions on the missile program, missiles that can reach half of Europe today will be able to reach the United States within five to 10 years.”
Golov argued that only a nuclear deal would leave Iran free to rebuild the missile shield that would protect it from future nuclear attack.
“An agreement that focuses only on the nuclear program would allow the Iranians to produce thousands of missiles and build a security blanket around their nuclear program.”
Ruhe similarly said that limiting Iran’s missile arsenal should include preventing Iran from rebuilding production capabilities damaged during the war.
Iran draws missile red line, analysts warn Tehran is hindering talks with US
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a projectile over Tel Aviv on February 28, 2026, amid Iran’s retaliatory missile bombardment targeting Gulf countries and Israel. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Hamas, Hezbollah and the proxy question
Another major Israeli concern is that sanctions relief or renewed trade could divert money back to Iran’s regional proxies.
“Israel is demanding that the Islamic Republic disassociate itself from Lebanon and Gaza and stop supporting armed groups working against Israel,” Eyal said.
He said, “For Israel, it is an important issue that the money poured into Iran will not be used to rebuild proxies in the region.”
Amidror said the collapse of regional supply routes has already weakened Iran’s ability to support Hezbollah and Hamas.
“Iranians cannot effectively support proxies because there is no longer a land bridge from Iran to Syria,” he said, but he warned that if the talks gave the impression that Washington had backed down, Iran’s regional proxies could emerge stronger even after the war.
No ‘victory image’ for Tehran
Ruhe similarly argued that Israel wants to avoid any agreement that restores the legitimacy of the Iranian regime without fundamentally weakening it.
Ruhe said it is important to “avoid anything that delegitimizes Iran’s regime and alienates the Iranian people”, including “providing guarantees against future attacks or compensating Tehran for losses during the war.”
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Satellite imagery shows reinforcement efforts at the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, a heavily fortified, deep underground tunnel complex near Iran’s Natanz enrichment site. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
Ruhe warned that for Israel, a “bad deal” is ultimately any agreement that prevents Israel’s future freedom of action against Iran and its proxies.
“This is a big reason why Iran wants to engage the Trump administration in open negotiations that sideline military options and create a day-to-day atmosphere between Washington and Jerusalem,” Ruhe said.
