Trump given four Iran demands by Israel’s Netanyahu

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had told U.S. President Donald Trump at their recent meeting to make four key demands of Iran in any deal to avert military strikes against the Islamic regime in Tehran, though he doubted that an agreement is possible.

“I will not hide from you that I express my skepticism of any deal with Iran, because, frankly, Iran is reliable on one thing, they lie and they cheat,” Netanyahu said at the conference of presidents of major American Jewish organizations on Sunday.

“But I said that if a deal is to be reached, it should have several components that we believe are important, not only for the security of Israel, but for the security of the world, the United States, the region, the world.”

Netanyahu’s four demands were that all enriched uranium must leave Iran; that Iran have no enrichment capability going forward; that limits on the range of Iranian ballistic missiles are enforced; and that Iranian proxy militias in the region such as Hezbollah, which the Israeli leader called an “axis of terror”, are dismantled.

Israel and the U.S. believe Iran harbors ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon, which Tehran denies. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian energy purposes, though it has stockpiles of uranium enriched to a purity beyond what is needed for that.

Iran has already said it has a red line on its ability to enrich uranium as talks with U.S. officials continue. Trump remains open to a deal with Iran, but warned of terrible consequences if one cannot be struck.

He has sent a second warship to the Middle East as part of a large-scale buildup of military hardware there so the U.S. can strike Iran and protect regional allies and its assets within them from Iranian retaliation, such as the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

This is a developing article. Updates to follow. 

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