00:00Netanyahu has already started his visit here in DC. He had dinner with Jared Kushner and Steve Wyckoff, two people
00:06very close to Donald Trump, who of course have been trying to broker this kind of peace deal between Israel
00:12and Hamas, as well as various other ongoing international crises like the war in Ukraine.
00:19And of course, they are also helping in the situation between Israel and Iran. And it is Iran that Netanyahu
00:26wants to talk to Trump about when we go into that meeting on Wednesday.
00:32So Netanyahu plans to present Trump with fresh intelligence on Iran's military capabilities.
00:38There are worries about Iran's progress in restoring its ballistic missile stockpiles and capabilities to the level that it was
00:44before the 12-day war.
00:46The Israeli assessment is that without action being taken, Iran could possess between 1,800 to 2,000 ballistic missiles
00:53within weeks or months.
00:54Now, Donald Trump has said that any deal with Iran must include Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium,
01:00ceasing enrichment of uranium altogether and placing limits on its ballistic missile program and ending its support for regional proxies.
01:08But the Iranians have been loathed to do that and want to keep the scope of these talks focused on
01:14the nuclear element.
01:16And it should be noted that Netanyahu also sides with the U.S. and wants those demands as well.
01:23From Netanyahu's standpoint, effectively, the two preferred options for him are either the military defeat of Iran through American force
01:30or what he sees as a conceptual defeat,
01:32which effectively would mean an agreement so comprehensive that it effectively dismantles Iran's ability to defend itself.
01:38So that would include those nuclear options and programs as well.
01:42But Trump, over the weekend, signaled that he would be willing to settle for just an agreement on no nuclear
01:47weapons.
01:48The unproductive talks that the U.S. had with Iran last week showed that there were no new rounds of
01:54talks scheduled.
01:54But Trump is said to be considering sending another carrier strike group to the region to put more pressure on
02:02Iran should these talks fall through.
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