The New York Times:

By Isabel Kershner

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in the past listed the three main threats facing Israel as “Iran, Iran and Iran.” He has largely staked his career on being Israel’s protector against Iranian nuclear ambitions, has openly confronted Tehran in recent months and is at war with Iran-backed militias around the region.

Many Israelis were therefore surprised when President Trump, with Mr. Netanyahu sitting beside him, announced on Monday that the United States would engage in “direct” negotiations with Iran on Saturday in a last-ditch effort to rein in the country’s nuclear program.

Mr. Trump’s statement was splashed over the front pages of Israel’s major newspapers on Tuesday morning. As the day went on, pundits increasingly weighed in, parsing the pros and cons of the unexpected development.

By early evening in Israel, Mr. Netanyahu had issued a video statement before his departure from Washington in which he largely strove to emphasize his close alliance and alignment with the Trump administration.

“We agree that Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” he said, adding that this could be achieved by diplomatic accord. But a negotiated solution, he explained, would have to result in the total destruction of Iran’s vast nuclear program, blowing up facilities and dismantling all equipment, all carried out by the United States.

But should Iran drag out the talks, Mr. Netanyahu said, the second option would be a military one. “Everyone understands that,” he said, adding, “We discussed it at length.”

With Iran’s nuclear program considered to be at its most advanced stage ever, some Israeli experts have suggested that now would be the perfect time to attack Tehran’s nuclear facilities. Iran’s traditional allies on Israel’s borders are either weakened, in the case of Hezbollah in Lebanon; or fallen, in the case of the Assad regime in Syria. That means any attack could take advantage of Tehran’s vulnerability after Israeli strikes in the fall took out air defenses around key nuclear sites.

If direct talks take place, they would be the first official face-to-face negotiations between the two countries since Mr. Trump abandoned the Obama-era nuclear accord seven years ago at the urging of Mr. Netanyahu, who had denounced it as a “bad deal.”

Mr. Netanyahu said in the Oval Office on Monday that if Iran could be absolutely prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon by diplomatic means, “that would be a good thing.”

Go to link