Trump and Netanyahu take a victory lap to mark strikes on Iran nuclear
facilities
[July 08, 2025]
By AAMER MADHANI, TIA GOLDENBERG and MICHELLE L. PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told
President Donald Trump he was nominating the U.S. leader for a Nobel
Peace Prize as the two took a victory lap Monday to hail their recent
joint strikes on Iran 's nuclear facilities as an unmitigated success.
The two leaders sat down with their top aides for a dinner in the White
House Blue Room to mark the Iran operation and discuss efforts to push
forward with a 60-day ceasefire proposal to pause the 21-month conflict
in Gaza.
“He’s forging peace as we speak, one country and one region after the
other," Netanyahu said as he presented Trump with a nominating letter he
said he sent the Nobel committee.
The call for the peace prize comes after the Israeli leader for years
had pressed Trump and his predecessors to take military action against
Iran's nuclear program. Trump ordered U.S. forces to drop
“bunker-buster” bombs and fire a barrage of Tomahawk missiles on three
key Iranian nuclear sites.
It also allowed Netanyahu to further ingratiate himself with Trump, who
for years has made little secret of the fact that he covets a Nobel
Peace Prize and sees himself as a capable peacemaker. He's trumpeted
recent truces that his administration facilitated between India and
Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and Israel and
Iran.
“Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful,” Trump told
Netanyahu as the prime minister handed him the nomination letter.
Netanyahu's outwardly triumphant visit to the White House, his third
this year, was dogged by Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza and
questions over how hard Trump will push for an end to the conflict.
But in an exchange before reporters before the dinner got underway, both
leaders expressed optimism that their success in Iran would mark a new
era in the Middle East.
“I think things are going to be really settled down a lot in the Middle
East," Trump said. "And, they respect us and they respect Israel.”
Trump says Iran wants to restart talks, but Iran hasn’t confirmed
that
Trump indicated anew that Iranian officials have reached out to the U.S.
to schedule talks about Iran's nuclear program. Negotiations had started
in April but were scuttled after Israel began its operations last month.
“We have scheduled Iran talks, and they want to,” Trump told reporters.
“They want to talk.” He said last week that the talks would restart
soon.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, sitting at the table with
Trump, said the meeting would be soon, perhaps in a week.
Tehran has yet to confirm that it has agreed to restart talks with the
U.S.
But Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in an interview published Monday
said the U.S. airstrikes so badly damaged his country’s nuclear
facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access
them to survey the destruction.
Pezeshkian added in the interview with conservative American broadcaster
Tucker Carlson that Iran would be willing to resume cooperation with the
U.N. nuclear watchdog but cannot yet commit to allowing its inspectors
unfettered access to monitor the sites.
“We stand ready to have such supervision,” Pezeshkian said.
“Unfortunately, as a result of the United States’ unlawful attacks
against our nuclear centers and installations, many of the pieces of
equipment and the facilities there have been severely damaged.”
Pushing for a new ceasefire proposal in Gaza
Trump has made clear that following last month's 12-day war between
Israel and Iran he would like to see the Gaza conflict end soon. The
meeting between Trump and Netanyahu may give new urgency to a U.S.
ceasefire proposal being discussed by Israel and Hamas.
White House officials are urging Israel and Hamas to quickly seal a new
ceasefire agreement that would bring about a 60-day pause in the
fighting, send aid flooding into Gaza and free at least some of the
remaining 50 hostages held in the territory, 20 of whom are believed to
be living.
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a meeting with
President Donald Trump in the Blue Room of the White House, Monday,
July 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Leavitt announced Monday that Witkoff will travel later this week to
Doha, Qatar, for ceasefire and hostage talks.
But a sticking point is whether the ceasefire will end the war
altogether. Hamas has said it is willing to free all the hostages in
exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal from
Gaza. Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas surrenders, disarms
and goes into exile — something it refuses to do.
“We’ll work out a peace with our Palestinian neighbors, those that
don’t want to destroy us,” Netanyahu said. "We’ll work out a peace
in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always
remains in our hands.”
Trump has been pressuring Israel and Hamas to wrap up the conflict,
which has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, ravaged Gaza,
deepened Israel’s international isolation and made any resolution to
the broader conflict between Israel and the Palestinians more
distant than ever.
But the precise details of the deal are still in flux. In the days
before Netanyahu’s visit, Trump seemed to downplay the chances for a
breakthrough.
Asked Friday how confident he was a ceasefire deal would come
together, Trump told reporters, “I’m very optimistic — but you know,
look, it changes from day to day.”
Trump and Netanyahu are more in sync than ever
After Trump’s decision to get involved in Israel’s war in Iran, the
two leaders are more in sync than ever. But that’s not always been
the case.
As recently as Netanyahu’s last visit to Washington in April, the
tone was markedly different.
Trump used the photo op with Netanyahu to announce that the U.S. was
entering into negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program —
appearing to catch the Israeli leader off guard and, at the time,
slamming the brakes on any Israeli military plan.
Trump, whose policies have largely aligned with Israel's own
priorities, pledged last week to be “very firm” with Netanyahu on
ending the war, without saying what that would entail. Pressure by
Trump has worked on Netanyahu in the past, with a ceasefire deal
having been reached right as the president was taking office again.
Netanyahu has to balance the demands of his American ally with the
far-right parties in his governing coalition, which hold the key to
his political survival and oppose ending the war.
But given the strong U.S. support in Israel's war against Iran,
highlighted by joint airstrikes on a fortified underground Iranian
nuclear site, Netanyahu may have a tough time saying no.
Trump also may be expecting something in return for his recent calls
for Netanyahu's corruption trial to be canceled — a significant
interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state.
“Trump thinks that Netanyahu owes him,” said Eytan Gilboa, an expert
on U.S.-Israel affairs at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv. “And if
Trump thinks that he needs to end the war In Gaza, then that is what
he will need to do.”
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers
Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Lee, Lisa Mascaro and Darlene Superville
contributed reporting.
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