Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to US President Donald Trump last week to discuss the possibility of a renewed military campaign against Iran before Knesset elections are held at the end of October, according to an Axios report on Tuesday.
Senior US officials told Axios that Netanyahu cited alleged Iranian efforts to rebuild nuclear capacity as the reason for launching new strikes.
If military operations against Iran do reignite, it could have an impact on both the Israeli election and US midterm elections in early November.
Despite Trump’s earlier public statements that he has not yet decided how to proceed with Tehran, sources said both the IDF and US Central Command (CENTCOM) are on alert and are finalizing preparations in case he decides to order strikes.
One US official told Axios that Trump has told Netanyahu to “go ahead and get ready,” but noted there was no definitive commitment to restarting military operations.
A White House official denied that the two leaders had talked about resuming the war and asserted that Trump has said that the US will not attack Iran before midterm elections.
The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Netanyahu maintains regular contact with Trump but did not comment to Axios on the content of their talks.
This is a developing story.