Discussion of potential attack is ongoing, CBS reports; as 2nd round of US-Iran talks set to start, PM demands Iran remove enriched uranium, dismantle facilities, limit missiles
US President Donald Trump told Prime Minister Netanyahu in December that he would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if the US and Iran could not reach a deal, CBS News reported on Sunday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The US outlet reported that discussions about such an attack, roughly eight months after the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, are ongoing. During last year’s war, the US joined the Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. This time, the American role in an Israeli attack would involve helping jets refuel in midair or aiding Israel in receiving permission to fly over neighboring countries, CBS reported.
Several countries have said they would not let their airspace be used for an attack on Iran.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also acknowledged that the talks could fail, while emphasizing that Trump remains committed to seeing them through. Iran, meanwhile, signaled flexibility on its nuclear program and urged Washington to pursue a deal with mutual economic benefits.
The talks, which began earlier this month in Oman, came after Trump threatened to strike Iran over its crackdown on mass anti-regime protests in January, which rights groups say killed thousands. Tehran has threatened to respond to any American attack with strikes on Israel and US targets in the region.
Since making the threats, Trump has pursued the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, saying after his White House meeting with Netanyahu last week that he “insisted” diplomacy be given a chance.
At the same time, however, he has built up US military force in the Middle East and warned Tehran of dire consequences if the talks fail. He said last week, regarding regime change in Iran, that it “seems like that would be the best thing that could happen.”
Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jets prepare to take off for strikes in Iran, in a handout photo published on June 27, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Netanyahu has consistently accused Iran of duplicity, a claim he repeated in a speech on Sunday. Speaking in Jerusalem, he told US Jewish leaders that Trump was “determined to exhaust the possibilities of achieving a deal, which he believes can be achieved now” with Iran, before resorting to force.
“I will not hide from you that I express my skepticism of any deal with Iran,” he told a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, “because, frankly, Iran is reliable on one thing — that they lie and they cheat.”
Netanyahu laid out four Israeli demands regarding any deal with Iran, including the removal of the country’s entire stock of enriched uranium and the dismantling of its nuclear facilities.
“The first is that all enriched material has to leave Iran,” he said. “The second is that there should be no enrichment capability… dismantle the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place.”
He also demanded that the talks limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and address its support for proxy terror groups — issues that Iran has said should not be part of the current negotiations.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, center, heads to the venue for talks between Iran and the US, in Muscat, Oman, February 6, 2026. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP, File)
US Secretary of State Rubio, also speaking on Sunday, said Trump would prefer a negotiated settlement but likewise expressed skepticism.
“No one’s ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we’re going to try,” he said at a news conference in Bratislava.
An unnamed source told Reuters last week that a US delegation, including envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would meet Iranian officials in Geneva on Tuesday, a meeting confirmed to Reuters by a senior Iranian official on Sunday.
“Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling, I think they are traveling right now, to have important meetings, and we’ll see how that turns out,” Rubio said, without providing further details.
Marco Rubio boards the airplane as he departs the Bratislava Airport in Bratislava, Slovakia, February 15, 2026. (AP/Alex Brandon, Pool)
During his visit to Geneva, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to hold talks with his Swiss and Omani counterparts as well as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, and other international officials, the Iranian foreign ministry statement said.
Considerable uncertainty surrounds the fate of Iran’s stockpile of more than 400 kilograms of 60-percent enriched uranium that was last seen by nuclear watchdog inspectors in June.
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi signaled Iran’s readiness to compromise on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, telling the BBC earlier on Sunday that the ball was “in America’s court to prove that they want to do a deal.”
The senior official referred to the Iranian atomic chief’s statement the week prior that the country could agree to dilute its most highly enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions as an example of Iran’s flexibility.
However, he reiterated that Tehran would not accept zero uranium enrichment, a key sticking point in past negotiations, with Washington viewing enrichment inside Iran as a potential pathway to nuclear weapons.
Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the Conference of Presidents Leadership Mission to Israel in Jerusalem, February 15, 2026 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Another Iranian official touted potential energy, mining, and aircraft deals that are on the table in the talks with the US.
“For the sake of an agreement’s durability, it is essential that the US also benefits in areas with high and quick economic returns,” foreign ministry deputy director for economic diplomacy Hamid Ghanbari said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. “Common interests in the oil and gas fields, joint fields, mining investments, and even aircraft purchases are included in the negotiations.”
The talks are the second attempt at negotiations between Iran and the US since Trump returned to office early last year. Previous talks between the two countries fell apart shortly before the Israel-Iran war in June 2025.
In 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Barack Obama-era Iran deal, which reduced sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program. Washington claimed Iranian non-compliance at the time of the withdrawal and began reimposing tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
While talks leading to the 2015 nuclear pact were multilateral, the current negotiations are confined to Iran and the United States, with Muscat acting as mediator.
Content retrieved from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-told-netanyahu-hed-back-israeli-strikes-on-iran-if-talks-fail-report/.
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