Netanyahu said to ask Trump not to move forward with Iran ceasefire at this stage

Premier reported to raise issue while congratulating president on rescue of downed US airman; cabinet said told a truce with Iran wouldn’t stop Israel from continuing Lebanon ground op

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned US President Donald Trump on Sunday against agreeing to a ceasefire with Iran at this stage in the war against the Islamic Republic, a senior Israeli official told Channel 12 on Monday.

The report came hours after a Pakistan-brokered draft proposal for a temporary 45-day ceasefire was submitted to both Washington and Tehran for consideration. Iran, in response, rejected the offer and demanded nothing less than a permanent ceasefire, while Trump continued to refer to his ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday night or face “hell.”

Israel has not publicly commented on the proposal, although the Israel Hayom news outlet reported that Netanyahu had told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that, in the event of a ceasefire with Iran, Jerusalem would not be required to halt its operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Netanyahu, who has publicly insisted that the US and Israel see eye-to-eye on the fighting in Iran, called Trump on Sunday ostensibly to congratulate him on the rescue of a downed US F-15 airman in Iran, the official told Channel 12, but in reality orchestrated the conversation to express concern over a potential ceasefire with Iran.

According to the official, Netanyahu believes that a ceasefire at this stage would carry with it significant risks.

Trump, for his part, was apparently not convinced, as the official said he told the premier that it would be possible to proceed with a truce if Iran agrees to Washington’s demands. The president stressed, however, that he would not give up his demand that Tehran hand over all of its enriched uranium and agree not to resume enrichment, the report said.

Officials close to Trump told Channel 12, however, that Iran’s current position was unlikely to allow for a deal in the foreseeable future.

In a round of last-ditch negotiations ahead of the outbreak of war on February 28, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had ruled out Tehran ever giving up its right to enrich uranium.

Netanyahu did not publicly appear to be out of sync with Trump and Washington’s vision for Iran on Monday, publishing a video in which he recounted the glowing praise that the US president had purportedly heaped upon Israel during the pair’s phone call the previous day.

He said Trump thanked Israel for its part in the rescue of the US officer whose fighter jet was downed.

“I expressed to him our immense appreciation for the heroic rescue operation of that American airman,” said Netanyahu in the video released by his office. “And President Trump, for his part, thanked me for the assistance that Israel provided in that operation.”

Israeli officials have said that Israel’s assistance consisted of sharing intelligence and halting bombings in the areas where searches for the officer were taking place.

The significance of Israel’s involvement has been disputed, however, by Trump, who said yesterday that Israel helped “a little bit” with the operation, and likened it to a “little brother.”

But according to Netanyahu, Trump gushed about Israel in the conversation on Sunday evening.

“He said, ‘You guys are great,’” Netanyahu recounted in the video. “You are great. He sees Israel as a strong, determined, and resolute ally, fighting shoulder to shoulder alongside the United States, and together we are continuing to crush Iran’s terror regime.”

Israel and the US, he said, “are systematically eliminating the Revolutionary Guards’ money machine. We are eliminating factories, we are eliminating operatives, and yes, we continue to eliminate senior officials.”

Trump, meanwhile, said on Monday that, during the phone call with Netanyahu, he told the premier that Israel would have been destroyed had he not pulled out of former president Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

“I told this to Bibi Netanyahu yesterday,” he said at a White House press conference.

The president also repeated his bewilderment with the majority of US who vote for Democratic politicians.

“How Israel can vote for a Democrat — if you’re Jewish in New York City or any place else in this country, how you can vote for a Democrat is unbelievable because (Obama) chose Iran,” Trump said.

Ongoing fight against Hezbollah

As Israel and the rest of the world wait to see if Pakistan’s attempts at ending the fighting in Iran are successful, the premier was said to have told a cabinet meeting on Sunday night that the fight against Hezbollah would continue, even after the campaign in Iran comes to an end.

The premier told the ministers, according to Israel Hayom, that Tehran would not be able to demand that Israel stop fighting its proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of any ceasefire to halt the US-Israeli offensive in Iran.

In the same meeting, the outlet reported, Defense Minister Israel Katz defended Israel’s abilities to remove the threat posed by Hezbollah on the northern border, after a senior military official suggested last week that it would be unrealistic to expect the terror group to be disarmed by the end of the ongoing ground offensive.

According to the report, the defense minister insisted to the cabinet that “the ultimate goal” of the campaign in Lebanon “is to disarm Hezbollah by all military and political means. Of course, also beyond the Litani, and we are working on that.”

He said that the IDF was demilitarizing southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, while retaining full freedom of action for Israel in Lebanon.

“There is not and will not be a population that is hostile to Israel in this area. Not even a civilian one,” said Katz, according to the report.

Israeli officials have said that the IDF is establishing a demilitarized “security zone” in southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, until the threat of Hezbollah is removed.

The buffer zone would be controlled with surveillance and firepower, as well as ground troops in areas deemed strategically necessary, the military has said.

Katz has said he instructed the IDF to raze all buildings in the so-called “first line” of Lebanese villages close to the Israeli border, to ensure that Hezbollah cannot use them to stage attacks on Israel.

The defense minister’s comments came after a senior military official said last week that the prospect of fully disarming Hezbollah was unrealistic and not “a required goal” of the army’s ongoing ground offensive.

In a similar vein, IDF Northern Command head Maj. Gen. Rafi Milo said in comments aired by Channel 12 on Saturday that security officials had overestimated the damage done to Hezbollah’s military capabilities following the army’s 2024 ground offensive.

The same Channel 12 report also alleged that the IDF had shifted its assessment of Hezbollah’s current capabilities, understanding the terror group to be stronger still than estimated and estimating that it still has hundreds of rocket launchers and tens of thousands of rockets at its disposal.

According to Israel Hayom, Netanyahu expressed anger during the cabinet meeting over Milo’s comments and the news report, prompting officers to offer an alternative perspective, expressing surprise at how poorly Hezbollah has been fighting on the ground.

“Hezbollah’s performance is low in every way,” an intelligence officer was quoted as saying. “I expected more from Hezbollah.”

“If we were surprised by anything, it was Hezbollah’s low level of fighting, both in terms of motivation or lack of motivation, and in terms of combat capability,” the report said IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told the meeting. “We discovered that the terrifying Radwan force is not that terrifying.”

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.