Ahead of US-Iran talks, Netanyahu said to tout ‘buildup of conditions’ for regime’s collapse |
With US-Iran tensions ratcheting up a day ahead of scheduled talks in Oman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of the security cabinet in Jerusalem on Thursday evening.
The high-level meeting had originally been set to take place on Sunday, but Netanyahu decided on Wednesday to move the gathering up to Thursday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and senior US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to meet for nuclear talks in Muscat on Friday, with both Tehran and Washington continuing their saber-rattling in recent days.
Netanyahu’s office did not issue any statement or comments on the meeting. Channel 12 news reported that it did not focus primarily on Iran, instead including briefings on other issues such as the financial status of the Palestinian Authority.
According to the network, however, Netanyahu did discuss Iran earlier in the day, at a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, where he reportedly said that “there is a buildup of conditions toward a critical mass that could bring about the downfall of the Iranian regime,” though he reportedly cautioned that he was unsure whether it would be sufficient to cause that outcome.
Speaking to the closed-door meeting of the committee on Thursday afternoon, Netanyahu said that if Iran attacks Israel, “it will face a powerful response,” according to the Knesset Spokesman’s Office.
Channel 12 said Netanyahu told the lawmakers that coordination with the United States is “as high and as close as possible,” while acknowledging uncertainty over what decisions US President Donald Trump will ultimately make.
Speaking Thursday at a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Trump said that Iran was currently negotiating with the US because “they don’t want us to hit them.”
“We have a big fleet going over to Iran,” he reiterated, after making similar comments repeatedly throughout this week.
The US and Iran have agreed to hold talks in Oman on Friday, officials for both sides said, even as they remain at odds over Washington’s insistence that negotiations must include Tehran’s missile arsenal and Iran’s vow to discuss........