Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio by phone on Saturday evening, Axios and Reuters reported, citing unnamed American sources.
According to the source cited by Axios, Netanyahu and Rubio discussed the ongoing anti-regime protests in Iran, as well as the situations in the Gaza Strip and Syria and other “regional issues.”
U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Saturday that Washington “stands ready to help” the protesters in Iran, as the death toll continued to climb on the 14th consecutive day of unrest.
“Iran is looking for freedom, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!” the president said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
On Friday, the American leader had issued another warning to the Islamic regime, saying that if it started gunning down demonstrators, “We will get involved. We’ll be hitting them very hard where it hurts.”
In Gaza, the ceasefire plan brokered by the Trump administration has hit an impasse as the Hamas terrorist organization refuses to give up its weapons.
An Israeli official told JNS on Saturday that “Hamas has no choice but to disarm, and it will happen either the easy way or the hard way,” adding, “The terror group committed to President Trump’s plan, which includes laying down their weapons. The policy is clear: The terror group will be disarmed one way or another.”
The official was referencing Trump’s 20-point peace plan, under which Hamas is supposed to give up its power in the Strip and demilitarize.
On Jan. 6, Israel and Syria’s Sunni Islamist regime agreed during U.S.-mediated negotiations in France to set up a coordination mechanism with the stated goal of “intelligence sharing, military de-escalation, diplomatic engagement and commercial opportunities.”
The mechanism announced on Tuesday marked the most significant formal step that Jerusalem and Damascus have taken towards working together since Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former Al-Qaeda terrorist also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, took power after the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024.
