Ben Gvir Threatens to Abandon Netanyahu if Gaza Offensive Lowered

 An Israeli artillery unit shells targets in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza border on Thursday (EPA)
An Israeli artillery unit shells targets in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza border on Thursday (EPA)
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Ben Gvir Threatens to Abandon Netanyahu if Gaza Offensive Lowered

 An Israeli artillery unit shells targets in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza border on Thursday (EPA)
An Israeli artillery unit shells targets in the Gaza Strip near the Gaza border on Thursday (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered firm stances last Wednesday saying Israel intends to “continue the war on the Gaza Strip until the end” only following threats of the far-right wing in his government, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, political sources in Tel Aviv revealed.
Ben Gvir spoke directly to Netanyahu and said his Otzma Yehudit party is the most loyal to him in the ruling coalition, even more than the Likud.
However, the minister affirmed that if anyone intends to halt the Israeli Army before Hamas has been defeated and all the hostages have been returned, then the PM should take into account that Otzma Yehudit will not be with him.
Netanyahu therefore understood that Ben Gvir would join efforts by some right-wing parties to change Netanyahu and to appoint a new Likud leader.
This is the reason why the Israeli PM said Wednesday there would be no ceasefire in the Gaza Strip until the “elimination” of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Netanyahu's remarks came amid reports saying Israel is negotiating in an attempt to reach a new prisoner swap deal with the Hamas group.
In a statement to the media on Wednesday, Netanyahu said, “We’re continuing the war to the end. It will continue until Hamas is destroyed — until victory.”
He added: “Anyone who thinks we’ll stop is unmoored from reality... We’re raining fire on Hamas, hell fire. All Hamas terrorists, from first to last, face death. They have two options only: surrender or die.”
But it seems that Ben Gvir and his partner, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, are not satisfied with Netanyahu’s announcements. They want more.
“The idea of reducing activity in Gaza is a failure of war management by the small [war] cabinet. It should be dismantled immediately,” Ben Gvir said in a statement.
“The time has come to restore the reins to the wider [security] cabinet,” he added.
Smotrich, who is also a member of Israel’s war cabinet, expressed his rejection that Mossad spy agency chief David Barne be sent to Egypt to discuss freeing high-level Palestinian security prisoners in return for Israeli captives in Gaza.



Iran Wants Guarantees Trump Will Not Quit a New Nuclear Pact, Iranian Official Says

A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
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Iran Wants Guarantees Trump Will Not Quit a New Nuclear Pact, Iranian Official Says

A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
A paratrooper carries the Iranian flag during the National Army Day parade ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 18, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters

Iran told the United States in talks last week it was ready to accept some limits on its uranium enrichment but needed watertight guarantees President Donald Trump would not again ditch a nuclear pact, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Friday.

Iran and the United States are set to hold a second round of talks on Saturday in Rome, a week after a first round of negotiations in Oman which both sides described as positive.

Trump, who has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.

In the intervening years, Tehran has steadily overstepped the 2015 agreement's limits on its nuclear program, designed to make it harder to develop an atomic bomb.

Former US President Joe Biden, whose administration unsuccessfully tried to reinstate the 2015 pact, was not able to meet Tehran's demand for guarantees that no future US administration would renege on it.

Tehran has approached the talks warily, skeptical they could yield a deal and suspicious of Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to bomb Iran if it does not halt its accelerating uranium enrichment program, which Iran says is peaceful.

While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.

Tehran's red lines "mandated by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei" could not be compromised in the talks, the official told Reuters, describing Iran's negotiating position on condition of anonymity.

He said those red lines meant Iran would never agree to dismantle its centrifuges for enriching uranium, halt enrichment altogether, or reduce the amount of enriched uranium it stores to a level below the level it agreed in the 2015 deal that Trump abandoned.

It would also not negotiate over its missile program, which Tehran views as outside the scope of any nuclear deal.

"Iran understood in indirect talks in Oman that Washington doesn’t want Iran to stop all nuclear activities, and this can be a common ground for Iran and the US to start a fair negotiation," the source said.

Iran said on Friday reaching a deal with the United States was possible if "they demonstrate seriousness of intent and do not make unrealistic demands".

Top US negotiator Steve Witkoff, in a post on X on Tuesday, said Iran must "stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment" to reach a deal with Washington.

Tehran has said that it is ready to work with the UN nuclear agency, which it sees as "the only acceptable body in this process", to provide assurances that its nuclear work is peaceful, according to the source.

The source said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had told the Americans that, in return for that cooperation, Washington should promptly lift sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors.