Netanyahu Claims Trump Agreed Iran Nuclear Deal Must Dismantle All Enrichment Sites
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on 24 May 2026 that he spoke with US President Donald Trump the previous evening about a memorandum of understanding concerning the Strait of Hormuz and the shape of any final agreement on Iran's nuclear programme. According to a statement published by the Israeli Prime Minister's office, both leaders agreed that any deal must "fully eliminate" what Netanyahu described as "the nuclear danger" — requiring the dismantling of all uranium enrichment facilities on Iranian soil.
The timing matters. The announcement came as negotiations over Iran's nuclear file have intensified following months of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran, mediated variously by Oman and other Gulf states. The specific demand — total dismantlement of enrichment capacity — is substantially harder than the terms offered under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which permitted limited civilian enrichment under international monitoring. It is also a demand Iran has consistently refused, characterising it as a capitulation to pressure.
What the statement claims
Netanyahu's public claim frames the conversation with Trump as a bilateral alignment on the maximum possible position. "I spoke last night with President Trump about the memorandum of understanding to open the Straits of Hormuz and the upcoming negotiations for a final agreement on Iran," the statement reads, in text confirmed across multiple independent Telegram channels tracking Israeli official communications on 24 May 2026. The phrasing deliberately echoes language Netanyahu has used publicly for years — his 2018 statement that Israel would never accept Iranian presence in Syria, his sustained opposition to the JCPOA, and his repeated warnings about "nuclear danger" during his current government's tenure.
The claim that Trump signed off on the dismantlement standard is significant, because it runs counter to reporting from several Western wire services over the preceding weeks, which suggested the US side had moved toward accepting limited enrichment as part of a phased or conditional framework. Whether Trump's actual position aligns with what Netanyahu describes — or whether this is a selective public framing of a more ambiguous private conversation — cannot be confirmed from the available sources.
The Hormuz dimension
The reference to a memorandum of understanding on the Strait of Hormuz adds a separate layer. The waterway, which handles roughly a fifth of global oil trade, has been a persistent source of tension. Iranian officials have periodically threatened to restrict passage in response to sanctions pressure; the US has sought commitments from Gulf allies to keep the corridor open. Linking Hormuz to the nuclear file suggests an attempt by the Israeli side to embed security guarantees tied to freedom of navigation within whatever diplomatic architecture eventually emerges. The sources do not indicate whether the proposed memorandum is a formal US-Israel document or an informal diplomatic sketch.
Iranian state media have not yet responded to the specific contents of Netanyahu's statement as of the time of publication. Iran's position on enrichment — that it is a sovereign right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — remains unchanged in public statements from the Iranian foreign ministry and the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
What remains unclear
The sources do not establish whether Trump's position, as described by Netanyahu, represents a settled US negotiating mandate or a statement of preference that may shift. The available Telegram reports confirm only that the conversation took place and that Netanyahu characterised it in these terms. A joint communiqué or transcript has not been published. It is also not clear whether the "dismantlement" language Netanyahu uses implies total termination of Iran's programme — the permanent closure of facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Arak — or a more limited interpretation requiring the removal of centrifuges while preserving infrastructure.
The stakes
If the United States formally adopts total enrichment dismantlement as a red line, the current negotiating track becomes substantially harder to sustain. Iran has indicated it will not negotiate under what it characterises as maximum pressure, and its Supreme Leader has publicly ruled out any deal that requires the country to abandon its enrichment programme entirely. A diplomatic failure would most likely accelerate the timeline for Iran to accumulate sufficient fissile material for a nuclear device — a scenario that both Israeli and US intelligence assessments have placed at between several months and two years, depending on the enrichment level sought.
The alternative reading — that this is a negotiating position intended to set an extreme floor so that a more limited deal appears like a victory — has precedent in USIranian diplomacy. Whether Netanyahu's public statement was coordinated with the White House as a deliberate signal, or whether it reflects the Israeli leader's preference to influence the talks from the outside, is a distinction that may become clearer as formal negotiations resume in the coming weeks.
This publication's wire feed ran the statement from The Cradle Media and OSINT channels before the major Western services had published their versions. The Israeli framing — that any deal must eliminate the nuclear danger — appeared in the wire ahead of any US confirmation or contextualisation from Washington.
Wire provenance
This editorial synthesis draws on the following public wire/social posts:
- https://t.me/thecradlemedia/18942
- https://t.me/osintlive/11403
- https://t.me/GeoPWatch/7891
- https://t.me/wfwitness/6620
- https://t.me/abualiexpress/5541