President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu will make a “mutual decision” on when to end the war with Iran, the US leader has said.
During an interview with Hebrew media, Trump claimed the matter of how the conflict winds down would be Washington’s decision, but that the Israeli premier would have a say in it.
"I think it’s mutual… a little bit. We’ve been talking. I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account,” he told the Times of Israel.
"Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it… We’ve worked together.
"We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel.”
And, asked whether Israel could continue Operation Roaring Lion even if the White House decides to halt its own strikes, he replied: “I don’t think it’s going to be necessary.”
His comments come after the Trump administration publicly set out its key goals for the conflict.
A tweet from the official White House account on Friday stated: “Operation Epic Fury: Destroy Iran’s missile arsenal. Destroy their navy. Ensure they NEVER get a nuclear weapon.”
The administration has declined to specify an exact timeline for achieving these goals, though Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has estimated that it could take between four and six weeks.
Notably, regime change in Iran was not among the official war aims, despite Trump previously calling on Iranians to overthrow their government and backing a potential offensive by Kurdish groups to achieve this (though he has since walked back on the latter comment).
Nonetheless, shortly before Tehran announced Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father, Ali, ruled Iran for almost 40 years until his death in an Israeli airstrike last week, as the country’s new supreme leader, Trump did insist that whoever took up the role “won’t last long” without US support.
"He’s going to have to get approval from us," he told ABC News when asked about the prospect of a new supreme leader.
"If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me, that’s not going to do it.
"I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again, or worse, let them have a nuclear weapon."
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