{"id":264294,"date":"2026-01-29T21:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/264294\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T21:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:30:10","slug":"pm-holds-briefing-on-classified-topic-as-trump-decision-on-iran-strike-said-expected-in-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/264294\/","title":{"rendered":"PM holds briefing on ‘classified topic’ as Trump decision on Iran strike said expected in days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a security consultation in Jerusalem with top advisers and defense officials on a \u201cclassified topic,\u201d the office of one of the attendees told The Times of Israel on Thursday, as speculation continues to swirl over whether the US will attack Iran.<\/p>\n

According to Channel 12, the discussion was focused on Iran and the possibility of an American strike, which US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened.<\/p>\n

The meeting comes amid a flurry of threats, discussions and diplomatic activity in Jerusalem, Washington, Moscow and Tehran surrounding the possibility, and possible fallout, of a US strike on Iran. Iran is prepared to show its naval force next week after the US moved what Trump called a \u201cmassive armada\u201d into the region.<\/p>\n

Trump has threatened to attack over Iran\u2019s deadly crackdown on mass anti-regime protests this month. Rights groups have verified thousands of deaths, but estimates of the total number of people killed range into the tens of thousands. Trump has also more recently threatened Iran with strikes unless it agrees to a deal halting its nuclear program.<\/p>\n

A potential directive from Trump on a strike is expected in the coming days, once all of the US military assets heading to the Middle East are in place, a senior US official told Channel 12 on Thursday. Iran has repeatedly threatened to strike US targets and Israel if the US attacks.<\/p>\n

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Trump\u2019s goal in the strike and how he hopes to achieve it remain unclear, though he is reported to want to create conditions for \u201cregime change.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Israeli officials do not believe that a limited US strike will bring down the Iranian regime, and Trump shares their assessment, according to Channel 12. Therefore, they assessed that Trump will focus a potential attack on physical Iranian assets, especially its nuclear and missile programs.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tFrom left to right: Chief of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir visiting an operational unit of the Military Intelligence Directorate, January 1, 2026. (Ariel Hermoni\/Defense Ministry)<\/p>\n

The channel reported that Israel believes even a limited US strike will spur a significant Iranian attack on Israel, to which Jerusalem will respond in force.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the US military would be prepared to carry out whatever Trump decides on Iran to ensure Tehran does not pursue nuclear weapons capability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should not pursue nuclear capabilities. We will be prepared to deliver whatever this president expects of the War Department,\u201d Hegseth said, referring to the Trump administration\u2019s unofficial renaming of the Defense Department.<\/p>\n

Amid the uncertainty, senior Saudi and Israeli defense and intelligence officials are in Washington, DC, this week for talks with the Trump administration over a potential Iran strike, Axios reported, citing two US officials and two other sources with knowledge.<\/p>\n

According to the outlet, Israeli officials, among them IDF Intelligence Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder, are sharing intelligence on potential targets in Iran, whereas the Saudis are trying to head off a war through diplomatic means.<\/p>\n

Binder met senior Pentagon, CIA, and White House officials on Tuesday and Wednesday, said the two US officials. A source familiar with the details said that Binder brought specific information that the US requested.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman \u2014 younger brother of powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman \u2014 was due to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday and Friday.<\/p>\n

The Saudi crown prince has told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian that Riyadh would not allow its airspace or territory to be used for military actions against Tehran, state news agency SPA reported earlier this week.<\/p>\n

According to Axios, Saudi Arabia has been passing messages between Iran and the US in an effort to defuse the situation.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, listens to Saudi Arabia\u2019s Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, center, as Chief of the General Staff of Iran\u2019s Armed Forces Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri attends their meeting in Tehran, Iran, on April 17, 2025. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)<\/p>\n

In addition to the Saudi push against an attack, Israel has identified massive pressure from Turkey, Qatar, and Oman on the White House to allow them to mediate between Washington and Tehran to find a diplomatic solution, said Channel 12.<\/p>\n

Turkey will offer to mediate<\/a> between Washington and Tehran when Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi visits on Friday, officials said. Ankara is assessing additional security precautions along the border if a US strike destabilizes the country, a senior Turkish official told AFP.<\/p>\n

Much of the 500-kilometer (310-mile) frontier is secured by a wall, but \u201cit has proven insufficient,\u201d said the official.<\/p>\n

But recent talks between Washington and Iran failed to make inroads on a deal to end the Islamic Republic\u2019s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and that has increased Trump\u2019s openness to major intervention, CNN reported.<\/p>\n

A US naval strike group is in the Middle East, and Trump has warned it was \u201cready, willing and able\u201d to hit Iran \u201cif necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tAn Iranian flag flutters in front of the reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran, Aug. 21, 2010. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi, File)<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s first vice president said, meanwhile, that it must be ready for war.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we must be prepared for a state of war. Our strategy is that we will never start a war, but if it is imposed, we will defend ourselves,\u201d First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.<\/p>\n

He added that Iran is \u201cready\u201d for negotiations with the United States but said \u201cthis time we want guarantees,\u201d without giving further details.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, army spokesman Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia told state television, \u201cA decisive response will be delivered instantly\u201d in the event of a US attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf such a miscalculation is made by the Americans, it will certainly not unfold the way Trump imagines \u2014 carrying out a quick operation and then, two hours later, tweeting that the operation is over,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Russia keeps a close watch<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his UAE counterpart, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, that Russia is closely monitoring the situation in Iran and wants to discuss it with him in talks at the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

Putin made the comment at the start of talks with the UAE president, whose country has recently hosted peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the potential for talks between the US and Iran had not yet been exhausted, and that any use of force against Tehran could create \u201cchaos\u201d in the region and lead to dangerous consequences.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tIranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi speaks in a joint press briefing with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein in Tehran, Iran, January 18, 2026. (AP Photo\/Vahid Salemi)<\/p>\n

Russia is ready to evacuate its staff from\u00a0Iran\u2019s Bushehr nuclear power plant if necessary, Alexei Likhachev, the head of Russia\u2019s state nuclear corporation, was cited as saying on Thursday by the state news agency TASS.<\/p>\n

Putin said last year that hundreds of Russians were working at the facility, Iran\u2019s only operating nuclear power plant, which Moscow built for Iran.<\/p>\n

More nuclear facilities are currently being built at the Bushehr site by Russia.<\/p>\n

A US strike on Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities in June last year did not target Bushehr. Likhachev warned at the time that an attack on the site could trigger a catastrophe comparable to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.<\/p>\n

Iran to hold live fire exercise<\/p>\n

In more saber-rattling, Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard naval forces will carry out live-fire exercises in the Strait of Hormuz on February 1 and February 2, Press TV reported.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThis handout image from the US Navy shows an EA-18G Growler launching from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 23, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman\/U.S. Navy via AP)<\/p>\n

The Strait is the world\u2019s most vital oil export route, which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.<\/p>\n

A notice to mariners sent Thursday by radio warned that Iran planned to conduct \u201cnaval shooting\u201d in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday and Monday. Two Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists, also confirmed the warning had been sent.<\/p>\n

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the drill.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the US said it was to hold a multi-day aerial exercise<\/a> in the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a security consultation in Jerusalem with top advisers and defense officials on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-264294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}