Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that if US ‘indirect’ talks with Iran over its nuclear program fail, then a military attack becomes ‘inevitable’. He issued the warning fresh off his Monday Oval Office visit with President Trump, wherein the US leader announced for the first time that Saturday talks with the Iranians will be hosted in Oman.
Netanyahu said in the new video statement, ““We agree that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. This can be done in an agreement, but only if… they go in, blow up (Iran’s) facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision.” And he added: “If talks drag on, then the military option becomes inevitable.” Watch the Tuesday video message below:
Netanyahu, fresh off meeting with Trump, says the upcoming Iran "negotiations" will be based on the Libyan model, which would require Iran to "blow up" its own nuclear facilities under US supervision. Of course, the "Libyan model" resulted in Gadaffi getting regime-changed anyway pic.twitter.com/R57QTfodvw
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) April 8, 2025
Trump himself appeared to allude to this either/or scenario, or ultimatum to Tehran, when he said Monday, “I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly that Israel wants to be involved with, if they can avoid it.”
Trump then admitted, “But it’s getting to be very dangerous territory, and hopefully those talks will be successful.”
And after alluding to the worst case scenario, he offered a bright spot: “We’re having direct talks with Iran and they’ve started, it’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting and we’ll see what can happen.”
Netanyahu’s interesting description of blowing up or exploding Iran’s nuclear sites appears akin to what the US under George W. Bush offered Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. The strongman had famously ‘come in from the cold’ and gave up all WMD programs in return for an end to global isolation and Western sanctions.
Bush had at the time reportedly warned Gaddafi that “either you get rid of your weapons of mass destruction or [the United States] will personally destroy them and destroy everything with no discussion.” In the end Gaddafi did just that, which didn’t get him too far.
Also read: Gaza: Permanent War Back On, Netanyahu Declares Hostage Talks Continue “Only Under Fire”
