Netanyahu: Negotiations aim to 'divide the roles' between Beirut and Tel Aviv 'to get rid of Hezbollah'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated, in an interview with CBS aired on Sunday, his hope that the end of the Iranian regime would lead to the downfall, “like a house of cards,” of its proxies in the region, stating that the negotiations scheduled to take place in Washington at the end of the week aim to “divide the roles” between Beirut and Tel Aviv “in order to get rid of Hezbollah.”

“Is it possible? Yes. Is it certain? No,” he replied. “Iran continues to support these proxies [Houthis in Yemen, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon], who are seeking to produce ballistic missiles. We have significantly reduced their numbers, but they are still there and there is still work to be done,” said Netanyahu.

He estimated that “before the war” in October 2023, Hezbollah possessed “150,000 ballistic missiles and rockets,” representing “the highest concentration of such projectiles on the planet.” But “the bulk of this arsenal” has been destroyed, he noted with satisfaction, although “they still have thousands of rockets and a few ballistic missiles left, which continues to pose a major problem.” The Israeli Prime Minister also accused Hezbollah of “holding Lebanon hostage.

'We can make peace with Lebanon'

“We have no dispute with Lebanon. We can make peace with Lebanon, and we want to make peace with it tomorrow — no, even yesterday,” he said.

Netanyahu therefore rejected the idea of linking the end of the war in Iran to a cessation of hostilities on the Lebanese front, whilst maintaining that the war in Iran is “not over” because stocks of enriched uranium still need to be “taken out” from the country. The war “has achieved a great deal, but it is not over, as there is still nuclear material – enriched uranium – that must be removed from Iran,” he said, adding that there were also “enrichment sites to be dismantled."

"You go in and you take it out," the Israeli leader said when asked how the uranium could be removed.

Netanyahu said that U.S. President Donald Trump had a similar position.

"I'm not going to talk about military means, but the president, what President Trump has said to me 'I want to go in there.'"

However, Netanyahu's statement was in contrast to Trump's public position.

The 79-year-old Republican is under increasing domestic pressure to end the Iran war and he insists that Tehran's nuclear program has been contained.

In an interview aired Sunday but apparently recorded earlier, Trump said Iran was "militarily defeated" and he insisted that the uranium could be removed "whenever we want."

"We’ll get that at some point, whenever we want. We’ll have it surveilled," he told independent television journalist Sharyl Attkisson.

"We have that very well surveilled. If anybody got near the place we will know about it and we’ll blow them up."

Asked by CBS how the uranium stockpiles could be taken out from Iran, Netanyahu said he would prefer an agreement.

"I think it can be done physically. That's not the problem. If you have an agreement and you go in and you take it out, why not? That's the best way."

Pressed on whether there are military options to seize the hidden uranium, Netanyahu said, "I'm not going to talk about our military possibilities, plans, or anything of the kind."

"I'm not going to give a timetable to it, but I am going to say that's a terrifically important mission."

In addition to the unresolved uranium stockpile issue, Netanyahu said there were several other war aims that had yet to be accomplished.

"There’s still proxies that Iran supports, their ballistic missiles that they still want to produce. Now, we’ve degraded a lot of it, but all that is still there and there’s work to be done."

Enriched uranium

The fate of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium is one of the key issues at the heart of discussions between Tehran and Washington. The latest publicly available data dates back to just before the 12-day war in June 2025.

According to inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran then held 441 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 per cent — close to the 90 per cent threshold required to build a nuclear bomb — 180 kilograms enriched to 20 per cent, and over 6 tonnes enriched to 5 per cent. The 60% stockpile was spread across three sites: Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan.

As Trump visits China this week, Netanyahu has claimed that Beijing is supporting Tehran’s military arsenal. “China is providing some support, particularly components for missile manufacturing,” he said, refusing to elaborate further.

The Israeli Prime Minister estimated the aid his country receives annually from Washington at $3.8 billion and expressed his desire to reduce this amount “to zero,” at a time when voices are being raised in the United States to denounce support for Israel. “I believe it is time we learnt to do without this military support,” he said.

“Let’s start now and work towards that over the next 10 years.”