JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday (May 24) that he and US President Donald Trump agreed that any final agreement with Iran must remove the nuclear threat posed by Tehran.
Posting on Telegram, Netanyahu said this would require dismantling Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities and removing enriched nuclear material from its territory.
Netanyahu has also told Trump Israel would remain free to act against threats in Lebanon during a phone call about an emerging agreement between Washington and Iran on Saturday, an Israeli source said.
According to the Israeli source, the US is updating Israel on the negotiations with Iran.
“President Trump made it clear that he will stand firm in negotiations on his consistent demand for the dismantling of the Iranian nuclear program and the removal of all enriched uranium from its territory,” the source said, “and that he will not sign a final agreement without these conditions being met”.
Trump said Washington and Iran had “largely negotiated” a memorandum of understanding on a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping passage that has been effectively closed since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February.
ISRAEL STRIKES ON LEBANON
On Sunday, Lebanon’s health ministry said two people, including a paramedic from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, were killed in Israeli strikes on the south that also wounded six other rescuers.
“Successive Israeli enemy strikes on the town of Arab Salim in the Nabatieh district killed two people, including a paramedic from the Health Committee and wounded 10, including two Committee paramedics and four others from the Risala association,” a ministry statement said, condemning an “ongoing series of attacks on the health and emergency sector in south Lebanon”.
The Risala Scouts association rescuers are affiliated with the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement.
Prominent Israeli politician Benny Gantz said it would be a strategic mistake for Israel to accept a ceasefire in Lebanon, which its troops have entered to fight the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia, as part of a deal with Iran.
