Israel preparing to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, even as Donald Trump tries to negotiate deal: report

Sky News AU

22-05-2025

Israel is preparing for a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, despite the Trump administration's efforts to forge a diplomatic deal with Tehran, according to new report that cites American intel officials.
Intercepted messages between Israeli officials as well as observations of Israeli military movements have led the US to believe such an attack could be imminent, officials in US intelligence told CNN.
'The chance of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility has gone up significantly in recent months. And the prospect of a Trump-negotiated US-Iran deal that doesn't remove all of Iran's uranium makes the chance of a strike more likely,' a source familiar with US intelligence said.
Air munitions movements and the completion of air exercises by Israel's forces are among the signs of a possible strike on the Islamic Republic, CNN reports.
Such a strike risks triggering a broader regional conflict in the Middle East, experts have warned.
President Trump has publicly threatened Tehran with military action if a new nuclear deal with the US falls through, while also setting limits on how long the US would continue its diplomatic efforts.
The president gave Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a 60-day deadline in a letter sent in mid-March, a source told CNN.
It has now been more than 60 days since the letter was delivered and 38 days since the first round of talks began.
Israel feels it has been left 'between a rock and a hard place' by the diplomatic stalemate, former senior intelligence official Jonathan Panikoff told CNN.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure to not alienate his country's greatest ally, the United States, while also avoiding a US-Iran deal his country sees as a letdown.
'At the end of the day, the Israeli decision-making is going to be predicated on US policy determinations and actions, and what agreements President Trump does or does not come to with Iran,' Panikoff said.
Israel is unlikely to launch a strike without at least tacit US approval, he added.
'I think it's more likely they strike to try and get the deal to fall apart if they think Trump is going to settle for a 'bad deal'. The Israelis have not been shy about signaling that to us, both publicly and privately,' an intelligence source told CNN.
In October, Israel bombed Iran's missile production facilities and air defenses, leaving the regime the weakest it has been since it came to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the son of the Iranian shah, Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, told The Post in a sit-down interview in New York this month.
Israeli officials have talked up the possibility of further strikes on Iran in recent months, calling the Tehran regime an 'existential threat' to Israel.
'Iran is more exposed than ever to strikes on its nuclear facilities. We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal — to thwart and eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel,' Israel's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, wrote on X last November.
Originally published as Israel preparing to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, even as Donald Trump tries to negotiate deal: report