Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington marked an important moment in US-Israel relations. As the first foreign leader received by President Trump in this new phase of his presidency, Netanyahu was welcomed with high honors, reminiscent of their 2017 meeting. While much of the public focus was on Gaza, the most critical discussions behind closed doors centered on the Iranian threat—the regime’s nuclear ambitions, its regional aggression, and its sponsorship of terrorism.Though the public statements suggested a broad consensus between Washington and Jerusalem on Iran, potentially troubling developments have emerged. On Friday, Trump confirmed to Fox News that he had written a letter to Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei offering negotiations, a letter that the Iranian leader rejected at this stage. Trump warned Iran that it can either "make a deal" with the US or face the US "militarily. Meanwhile, there is a dialogue between the United States and Russia about the need to open negotiations on a new nuclear deal, with Iran.
These are tough words. But any talk of negotiating a new nuclear agreement—before Iran meets strict preconditions—is a dangerous mistake. The focus must not be on what a future agreement might look like, but on what Iran must do before any talks begin. This was the fatal flaw of the nuclear negotiations under Obama.
Western negotiators began with demands for zero enrichment mandated by multiple UN Security Council resolutions and ended up surrendering to Tehran an industrial-size enrichment capability that would lead to rapid nuclear weapons breakout over time along with hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
Violation of agreement
For years, Iran has systematically violated international agreements, deceived inspectors, and developed nuclear capabilities under the cover of diplomacy. A nuclear deal that merely attempts to improve on the JCPOA—without addressing Iran’s fundamental nuclear infrastructure—will lead to another disaster.
Any agreement must comprehensively dismantle all three pillars of Iran’s nuclear program: fissile material production – Iran must completely eliminate its stockpiles of enriched uranium, destroy its centrifuges, and shut down all conversion and enrichment facilities; weaponization – Iran must halt all weapon design and development activities, fully disclose past work, and dismantle research centers working on nuclear warhead technology; and delivery systems– Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is designed for nuclear payloads, must be stopped, with clear restrictions and verifiable enforcement mechanisms.
Critically, Iran must not be allowed to retain any nuclear capabilities on its soil. The world made this mistake once with the JCPOA, granting Tehran legitimacy while it continued developing its weapons program in secret. The only acceptable outcome is Iran’s complete nuclear rollback, enforced by intrusive inspections. Tehran can have a civilian nuclear energy program without uranium enrichment, advanced centrifuges or plutonium reprocessing. It can buy fuel rods from abroad like over 20 other countries do to power its existing nuclear reactor and any additional others it plans to build. But all must be fully proliferation proof.
Given the high likelihood that Iran will reject such preconditions to start a negotiation process, Israel must prepare for a large-scale campaign to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat. This should ideally be done in full cooperation with the United States. The strategic priority must be clear: First, eliminate Iran’s weaponization activities and its stockpiled enriched uranium. Then, enrichment facilities like Natanz and Fordow will be dismantled and destroyed.
Destroying nuclear sites without addressing weaponization would be a mistake. Iran’s extensive work on warhead design, combined with its existing uranium stockpile and advanced centrifuges, would enable it to recover quickly—even demand international legitimacy for its program after an attack.
The responsibility of countering Iran’s nuclear ambitions now falls on Israel’s 24th Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir. He carries the weight of ensuring that Iran’s nuclear threat is neutralized before it reaches the point of no return. The Israeli people stand behind him, and the government must ensure that he has all the necessary resources to carry out this mission effectively.
At the same time, full cooperation with the United States is essential. While Israel must be prepared to act alone, if necessary, an American-Israeli partnership significantly strengthens deterrence and operational capabilities. Washington and Jerusalem must work together to remove the most dangerous threat to Israel’s existence.
The time for diplomacy ended the moment Iran violated its commitments and raced toward nuclear breakout. The last thing President Trump should want is to be compared to Barack Obama, whose nuclear deal enabled Iran’s nuclear and regional aggression. The lesson from 2015 is clear: No more half-measures, no more bad deals, and no negotiations until Iran commits to completely dismantling its nuclear program.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Jacob Nagel is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a professor at Technion. He served as National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and as acting head of the National Security Council. Mark Dubowitz is FDD’s chief executive and an expert on Iran’s nuclear program and sanctions. In 2019, he was sanctioned by Iran.