Trump: Israel would be ‘leader’ of Iran strike if Tehran doesn’t give up nuclear weapons program

President Donald Trump listens as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Israel would be the “leader” of a potential military strike against Iran if Tehran doesn’t give up its nuclear weapons program.

Trump made the comments ahead of this weekend’s scheduled talks involving U.S. and Iranian officials in the Middle East sultanate of Oman. Trump earlier this week said the talks would be “direct” while Iran has described the engagement as “indirect” talks with the U.S.

“If it requires military, we’re going to have military,” Trump said. “Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. They’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us, but we do what we want to do.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week said he supports Trump’s diplomatic efforts to reach a settlement with Iran. He added that Israel and the U.S. share the same goal of ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu, however, led efforts to persuade Trump to pull out of a U.S.-brokered deal with Iran in 2018.

The Israeli leader, known for his hawkish views on Iran and past calls for military pressure, said he would welcome a diplomatic agreement along the lines of Libya’s deal with the international community in 2003. But that deal saw Libya’s late dictator Moammar Gadhafi give up all of his clandestine nuclear program. Iran has insisted its program, acknowledged to the International Atomic Energy Agency, should continue.

“I think that would be a good thing,” Netanyahu said. “But whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons.”

The United States is increasingly concerned as Tehran is closer than ever to a workable weapon. But Trump said on Wednesday that he doesn’t have a definitive timeline for the talks to come to a resolution.

“When you start talks, you know, if they’re going along well or not,” Trump said. “And I would say the conclusion would be what I think they’re not going along well. So that’s just a feeling.”

The U.S. and other world powers in 2015 reached a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

Iran and the U.S., under President Joe Biden, held indirect negotiations in Vienna in 2021 aimed at restoring the nuclear deal. But those talks, and others between Tehran and European nations, failed to reach any agreement.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department earlier on Wednesday issued new sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear program.

Five entities and one person based in Iran are cited in the new sanctions for their support of Iran’s nuclear program. The designated groups include the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and subordinates Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, Thorium Power Company, Pars Reactors Construction and Development Company and Azarab Industries Co.

“I want Iran to be great,” Trump said Wednesday. “The only thing that they can’t have is a nuclear weapon. They understand that.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian again pledged Wednesday that his nation is “not after a nuclear bomb” and even dangled the prospect of direct American investment in the Islamic Republic if the countries can reach a deal.

The comments by the reformist leader represent a departure from Iran’s stance after its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, in which Tehran sought to buy American airplanes but in effect barred U.S. companies from coming into the country.

“His excellency has no opposition to investment by American investors in Iran,” Pezeshkian said in a speech in Tehran, referring to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “American investors: Come and invest.”