Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the Jewish state would not be part of the emerging “memorandum of understanding” between the United States and Iran but that he had received assurances from U.S. President Donald Trump about the terms of the final agreement.
The prime minister’s office issued a readout after a call between Netanyahu and Trump on Thursday afternoon.
“Even though Israel is not a party to the memorandum of understanding, the prime minister expressed his appreciation for President Trump’s commitment that the final agreement at the conclusion of negotiations will include the removal of enriched material, the dismantling of enrichment infrastructure, limits on missile production and the cessation of Iran’s support for its terrorist proxies in the region,” it stated.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Israel was one of several countries with which he consulted about the agreement, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
Speaking during a telephone rally for Georgia gubernatorial candidate Burt Jones on Thursday, Trump said, “I don’t know if you heard, but we ended the war with Iran today, and they agreed they will never have a nuclear weapon.”
It’s not yet clear what, if anything, Iran has agreed to.
While speaking to the press in the Oval Office earlier on Thursday, Trump was asked if Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, had approved the agreement.
“I understand the answer is, ‘Yes,’” Trump said.
Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported after Trump announced the deal on social media that Iran had not approved the agreement, citing “an informed source.”
Trump told reporters on Thursday that a deal could be signed “soon, maybe this weekend.” That claim is similar to his statement to reporters on June 3, when he said a deal “might not happen, but if it happens, it could happen, like, over the weekend.”
Asked why he was convinced that the two countries were now, in fact, close to a deal after previously claiming that a deal was imminent, Trump said that it was because Iran had “taken a pounding.”
Reporters gathered in the Oval Office for Trump to sign an executive order about commercial fishing, a topic that he referred back to in explaining why Iran must not acquire a nuclear weapon.
“There won’t be anybody to fish,” Trump said. “The fish will still be around, I guess.”
