The message was delivered during a phone call between the two leaders on Wednesday last week, which was the first in more than seven weeks, the newspaper said on Monday. Details about the top-level conversation were provided by two anonymous sources: a US official and an “official familiar with the matter”, who described the Israeli position.
Iran fired 200 missiles at Israel on October 1, stating that it was a reprisal for the regime’s assassinations of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian group Hamas, who was killed in Tehran in late July, and Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September. The Netanyahu government announced it would choose how to respond.
Biden has publicly urged Netanyahu to refrain from striking oil or nuclear infrastructure in Iran. Washington reportedly offered Israel a “compensation package” in exchange for following the request.
According to the daily sources, Netanyahu was in a “more moderated place” during the conversation with Biden, which prompted the US leader to authorize the deployment to Israel of a THAAD anti-ballistic missile system and about 100 associated US military personnel. The Pentagon announced the move on Sunday.
The official familiar with the matter stated Israel intended to launch a series of attacks on Iran and that the first of them would come before the November 5 presidential election in the US. But the strike would be calibrated in a way that Israel hopes will prevent it from being taken as an attempt to influence the outcome of the vote.
Netanyahu discussed the situation with his security cabinet on Thursday night, but did not seek their approval to keep the timing open-ended, the source added.
Israel has announced it will consider US opinions but ultimately decide its response to Iran’s October 1 attack based on its own national interests, following reports that Netanyahu informed the US that Israel may avoid targeting Iranian nuclear and oil sites.
“We listen to the opinions of the United States, but we will make our final decisions based on our national interests,” Netanyahu’s office wrote on X, responding to the Washington Post report.
