World
What Israel wants from an Iran peace deal: No enrichment, missile limits and strict enforcement
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
As President Donald Trump signals progress toward a possible agreement with Iran, Israeli officials and analysts increasingly are outlining what Jerusalem believes any deal must include to prevent Tehran from rebuilding its military and regional power.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel and the United States remain in “full coordination” as negotiations continue.
“We share common objectives, and the most important objective is the removal of the enriched material from Iran, all the enriched material, and the dismantling of Iran’s enrichment capabilities,” Netanyahu said at the opening of a security cabinet meeting.
US AND IRAN CLASH OVER URANIUM ENRICHMENT AS NUCLEAR TALKS RESUME IN ROME
Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran, on April 29, 2024. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Wednesday.
At the same time, Trump warned that if negotiations fail, “we’ll have to go a big step further.”
For Israel, the question is not simply whether the war ends, but whether Iran emerges from negotiations weakened or repositioned to rebuild. Israeli officials fear a weak agreement could allow Tehran to preserve strategic capabilities, regain economic breathing room and eventually restore the regional network of armed groups that threatened Israel before the war. Jerusalem is also seeking guarantees that any future deal preserves military leverage and freedom of action if Iran violates its commitments.
Against that backdrop, Israeli analysts say Jerusalem’s red lines focus on four core areas: dismantling Iran’s enrichment infrastructure, restricting its ballistic missile program, preventing Tehran from rebuilding Hezbollah and Hamas, and ensuring the regime does not gain political legitimacy or strategic relief from the negotiations.
No enrichment, no sunsets
On the nuclear issue, former Israeli National Security Advisor Yaakov Amidror said Israel’s position remains uncompromising.
“Weaponized uranium must leave Iran,” Amidror said. “The Iranians must not be allowed to enrich uranium.”
Israeli journalist and commentator Nadav Eyal agreed, adding that Israel is seeking a much stricter framework than previous agreements.
“Israel wants Iran to stop enrichment for as long as possible and for the enriched material to leave Iran,” Eyal said, adding that Jerusalem is looking for “an arms control agreement that would be extensive and robust.”
An unclassified image released by U.S. Central Command showing strikes on Iran. (U.S. Central Command/Reuters)
Avner Golov, vice president of the Mind Israel think tank, told Fox News Digital that Israel also wants Iran’s underground nuclear infrastructure dismantled entirely.
“In the nuclear arena, what matters is the removal of the enriched material, the destruction of the underground facilities, including those still being built, and a prohibition on new sites,” Golov said.
Golov also warned against “sunset clauses” that would allow restrictions to expire after several years.
“There must be an agreement without sunsets,” he said, calling for “unprecedented monitoring and supervision, anywhere, under any conditions and not dependent on Iranian approval.”
Jonathan Ruhe, Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) fellow for American strategy, told Fox News Digital, “Ultimately the United States and Israel should have strongly similar redlines for an acceptable deal,” he said, including “shutting down Iran’s nuclear weapons program completely, permanently and verifiably.”
Ruhe said that goes beyond Iran handing over highly enriched uranium and includes shutting down remaining enrichment-related facilities at Pickaxe and Isfahan.
UN’S ATOMIC AGENCY’S IRAN POLICY GETS MIXED REVIEWS FROM EXPERTS AFTER US-ISRAEL ‘OBLITERATE’ NUCLEAR SITES
President Donald Trump speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Oct. 13, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Missiles seen as equal threat
Alongside the nuclear issue, Israeli analysts say Iran’s ballistic missile program has become equally central to Israel’s security concerns.
“One of the key questions is whether there will be any sort of limitation on the ballistic missile program of the Iranians,” Eyal said. “Israel sees this as no less of an existential threat than the nuclear issue.”
Amidror warned that without missile restrictions, the threat could eventually extend beyond Israel and Europe.
“If there are no restrictions on the missile program, then missiles that today can reach half of Europe will, within five to 10 years, be able to reach the United States,” he warned.
Golov argued that a nuclear-only agreement would leave Iran free to rebuild a missile shield protecting a future nuclear breakout.
“A deal that focuses only on the nuclear program would allow the Iranians to produce thousands of missiles and create a protective shield around their nuclear program.”
Ruhe similarly said limiting Iran’s missile arsenal must include preventing Iran from rebuilding production capabilities damaged during the war.
IRAN DRAWS MISSILE RED LINE AS ANALYSTS WARN TEHRAN IS STALLING US TALKS
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts projectiles over Tel Aviv on Feb. 28, 2026, amid retaliatory missile barrages from Iran targeting Gulf states and Israel. (Jack Guez/AFP)
Hamas, Hezbollah and the proxies question
Another major Israeli concern is that sanctions relief or renewed trade could funnel money back to Iran’s regional proxies.
“Israel is demanding that the Islamic Republic isolate itself from involvement with Lebanon and Gaza and stop supporting armed groups that operate against Israel,” Eyal said.
“For Israel, it is a material issue that the money injected into Iran will not be used to rebuild the proxies in the region,” he added.
Amidror said Iran’s ability to support Hezbollah and Hamas has already been weakened by the collapse of regional supply routes.
“The Iranians cannot effectively support the proxies because there is no longer a land bridge from Iran to Syria,” he said, but warned that if negotiations leave the impression that Washington backed down, Iran’s regional proxies could emerge stronger even after the war.
No ‘victory image’ for Tehran
Ruhe similarly argued that Israel wants to avoid any agreement that restores legitimacy to the Iranian regime without fundamentally weakening it.
“Avoiding anything that legitimates Iran’s regime and abandons the Iranian people” is critical, Ruhe said, including “giving guarantees against future attacks or compensating Tehran for wartime damages.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Satellite imagery shows reinforcement efforts at the Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, a heavily fortified, deep underground tunnel complex near Iran’s Natanz enrichment site. (Vantor/Handout via Reuters)
Ruhe warned that for Israel, a “bad deal” is ultimately any agreement that restrains Israel’s future freedom of action against Iran and its proxies.
“This is one big reason Iran wants to ensnare the Trump administration in open-ended negotiations that sideline military options and create daylight between Washington and Jerusalem,” Ruhe said.
World
Christian farming communities under siege as US report names Fulani militants Nigeria’s deadliest threat
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
JOHANNESBURG — An estimated 30,000 mostly Muslim Fulani militants are operating in Nigeria, causing “worsening insecurity and religious freedom violations,” according to an influential new report.
The report, by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), states “violence by Fulani militants caused the highest number of deaths among all religious communities in Nigeria over the last year, as compared to attacks by organized insurgent groups and criminal gangs.”
The Fulanis, so-called herders of livestock, have, according to the USCIRF report, “targeted Christian (farming) communities in the Middle Belt and, increasingly, the South, burning homes and churches as well as kidnapping, raping, and murdering.”
CHRISTIANS TARGETED IN SYSTEMATIC KIDNAPPING CAMPAIGN IN NIGERIA BY JIHADI HERDSMEN, EXPERTS SAY
Funerals were held for about 27 Christians reportedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in Bindi village, Plateau State, Nigeria, on July 28, 2025. (Christian Solidarity International)
But a former counterterrorism expert at the State Department told Fox News Digital that the kind of strikes the U.S., working with Nigerian government forces, have recently carried out in Nigeria’s North against Islamist terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram and Islamic State, wouldn’t work against the Fulanis in the predominantly Christian central areas of the country.
Sterling Tilley, former acting director within the Bureau of Counterterrorism, who has worked in Nigeria for the State Department, said that the U.S. “militarily dealing with the farmer-herder conflict is not advisable because it is likely to bring more instability in the country.” Tilley, now director of the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship at Howard University, added, “There are some steps that can be taken to quell the violence, but there must be Nigerian political will to do so.”
Young people protest against the killings following a deadly attack by Fulani militants on Christian-majority villages in Benue state, that left 218 people dead and 6,000 displaced. The protest took place in Benue state in June 2025. (Open Doors UK)
This week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commented on the recent strikes ordered by President Donald Trump on Nigeria, saying, “Maybe a year ago, [the president] heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS. And he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians.’”
NIGERIA NAMED EPICENTER OF GLOBAL KILLINGS OF CHRISTIANS OVER FAITH IN 2025, REPORT SAYS
Christians make up approximately 48% of Nigeria’s population. Fulani militants, the USCIRF report stated, “have often carried out operations during Christian holidays such as Christmas or Easter to further maximize the psychological impact, terrifying those communities from gathering to celebrate or worship. During attacks, assailants sometimes utter slogans with religious connotations, such as “Allahu Akbar“ (Arabic for “God is great”).
But, according to the report, Muslims are being attacked too. “Fulani assailants have not spared Muslims, raiding herders’ cattle and violently attacking non-Fulani Muslim communities,” the report added.
Coffins arrive at Ibrahim Babanginda Square in Makurdi, Benue State, on Jan. 11, 2018, during a funeral service for victims of clashes between Fulani herdsmen and natives of Guma and Logo districts. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP)
“Violence at the hands of militants from the Fulani tribe far outnumbers violence from all other militant groups such as Boko Haram or ISWAP (Islamic State West African Province),” Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK & Ireland, an organization that highlights the persecution of Christians, told Fox News Digital.
While her organization was not part of the report, she said, “My heart has been broken as I have heard stories from women and men who have seen their beloved family members butchered in front of them or carried off into a life of slavery.”
AFRICAN UNION CHIEF DENIES GENOCIDE CLAIMS AGAINST CHRISTIANS AS CRUZ WARNS NIGERIAN OFFICIALS
Fulani Muslim men pray in Masallacin Shehu Mosque, Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria, on April 24, 2019. (Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images)
Blyth added: “The situation is complicated, and as the report concludes, it is too simplistic to say all perpetrators are religiously motivated. What is undisputable is that Christians are highly vulnerable and often the victims, paying the price in blood. They desperately need protection and, for hundreds of thousands driven from their homes, the chance to heal and rebuild their lives.”
The USCIRF report also stated, “Criticism of responses to Fulani militant violence from federal and state authorities has often described their responses as unsatisfactory at best and complicit at worst.”
Tilley told Fox News Digital that elections are to be held in Nigeria next year, and “the Fulani do have considerable political influence as a voting bloc. Thus, the Nigerian government seems reluctant to take actions necessary to quell the violence for fear that they could lose their base of support in the North and Middle Belt.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital reached out to the Nigerian government for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
World
Zelenskyy warns Russia may be preparing ‘massive’ new attack
Published on
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia may be preparing to launch a “massive” new attack against Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
“We have intel indicating that Russia is preparing a new massive attack,” Zelenskyy said in a post on social media late on Friday, while also advising people to listen out for air raid alerts and keep safe.
“The air force and protectors of our skies will be working around the clock, as always,” he added.
It comes after Russia deployed its nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile in a massive wave of strikes on the Kyiv region last weekend. Ukraine said the attack included 90 missiles and 600 drones.
The use of the Oreshnik, an intermediate-range ballistic missile that Russia first used in a strike on Dnipro in 2024, drew strong criticism from leaders across Europe.
On Friday, Zelenskyy also reiterated his call for more Patriot missile systems from the US. The Patriot is an air and missile defense system used to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, and aircraft.
Zelenskyy told reporters in Sweden on Thursday that he was being “very persistent” in his pursuit of new missiles for the system. He reportedly wrote to US President Donald Trump earlier this week asking for more ammunition.
“For us — for a nation fighting for its survival — there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded,” he said in his letter to Trump.
World
War breaking news. Trump postpones decision: nothing after two hours in Situation Room
Iran, Trump shares draft agreement with Israel and other allies
US President Donald Trump has circulated the draft peace agreement for the war with Iran among allies, including Israel, while attempts are underway to prevent new ceasefire violations from escalating and derailing any agreement. Meanwhile, in an effort to accelerate negotiations, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, will be in Washington today to meet with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio.
Yesterday, Tehran targeted a US air base in Kuwait after Washington struck what it called an Iranian drone operation near the Strait of Hormuz, highlighting the fragility of the situation as both negotiating parties refuse to give in on the final points of disagreement. On Wednesday, Trump’s cabinet was scheduled to discuss the deal, but Axios – which reported on the terms of the deal reached – reported that the US president needed a few more days to reflect on the eventual go-ahead.
Direct military negotiations between Israel and Lebanon start today at the Pentagon
The first direct meeting between Lebanese and Israeli military delegations opens today at the Pentagon as part of the negotiations promoted by the United States after the truce that came into effect, at least on paper, in mid-April. The talks take place while Israel intensifies raids and bombardments in Lebanon, including the southern suburbs of Beirut. The Jewish state has issued several forced displacement orders to Israeli civilians in Nabatiye and Tyre, the two main Lebanese cities in the south of the country. Beirut’s armed forces come to the table with a position defined by President Joseph Aoun, who is considered close to the United States: a complete ceasefire, an end to Israeli operations, withdrawal from the occupied areas in the south, and increased army deployment along the border. Beirut also demands the release of Lebanese prisoners, the return of displaced persons, and international support for reconstruction. The meeting follows two previous negotiating sessions held in Washington on 14 and 15 May, which led to the extension of the ‘truce’ for 45 days. The United States, engaged in large-scale negotiations with Hezbollah supporter Iran, is aiming to strengthen direct military coordination between the two sides. In this sense, a new political round at the State Department is scheduled for 2 and 3 June. However, the most delicate knot remains on the table: Israel claims the right to conduct preventive operations against threats considered imminent, a formula contested by Beirut and at the centre of internal Lebanese tensions. At the same time, Washington continues to exert pressure on the Hezbollah disarmament dossier, while the Shiite movement reiterates its rejection of direct negotiations and continues its operations against the Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon. According to data gathered from Lebanese sources, more than 4,500 Israeli violations, more than 5,500 homes destroyed, and direct or indirect Israeli military control over more than 65 locations in South Lebanon have been recorded since the start of the mid-April ‘truce’.
Emir Qatar hears Trump, ‘priority to political and diplomatic solutions’
Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has asked US President Donald Trump to “prioritise political and diplomatic solutions” in the Middle East, in the context of negotiations between Washington and Tehran for a possible agreement. The request came during a phone call between the two leaders, during which international efforts to reduce tensions in the region were addressed. This was reported by the Qatari state agency Qna. Al Thani emphasised ‘the need to prioritise political and diplomatic solutions, as well as dialogue between all parties, to consolidate regional security and stability and avoid further tensions and escalation’. Washington meanwhile confirmed an agreement in principle with Iran to extend the 60-day truce and guarantee shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, but the understanding remains pending Trump’s approval and has not yet been confirmed by Tehran.
-
World26 seconds agoChristian farming communities under siege as US report names Fulani militants Nigeria’s deadliest threat
-
Politics3 minutes agoFBI arrests protester who threatened to kill ICE officer’s family at NJ detention center protest, Blanche says
-
Health8 minutes agoControversial drug delivered rapid relief for severe depression in just hours
-
Sports15 minutes agoThunder lose star Jalen Williams for Western Conference Finals Game 7 as hamstring injury lingers
-
Technology18 minutes agoHyundai to send 25,000 Atlas robots to the US
-
Business23 minutes ago
After heated debate, California updates key climate limit. Critics say it’s a retreat
-
Entertainment30 minutes agoSix Flags bans YouTuber for life for eating chicken nuggets on a roller coaster
-
Lifestyle33 minutes agoHow to have the best Sunday in L.A., according to Cary Elwes