Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to brief US President Donald Trump on options for attacking Iran again when the two leaders meet later this month.
This comes amid mounting concerns of Tehran expanding its ballistic missile programme, which was impacted by Israeli military strikes earlier this year, an NBC News report said, citing officials in the know.
The Trump-Netanyahu discussion is also expected to touch on Israel's concerns that Iran was restoring the nuclear enrichment sites (Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan) that the US had bombed when it entered a 12-day war between the two countries.
However, the ballistic missile issue is said to be more urgent.
Trump and Netanyahu are expected to meet at the US president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on December 29, where Netanyahu will make a case for a possible strike on Iran's ballistic missile production facilities.
The report added that Netanyahu's argument was also about the danger of Iran's actions for not just Israel, but also US interests in the Middle East—an attempt to offer Trump options to join or assist in any new military operations.
Israel's requests come at a time when the US has not ruled out open military conflict against Venezuela after its president Nicolas Maduro ordered his navy to escort Venezuelan oil tankers, in response to America's recent seizure of one of its sanctioned 'dark fleet' oil tankers.
BREAKING: According to Israeli officials speaking to NBC News, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to brief President Donald Trump on the possibility of launching new strikes against Iran’s nuclear and missile programs. pic.twitter.com/Uoa50gtUA8
— GMI (@Global_Mil_Info) December 20, 2025
Addressing the nation earlier this week, Trump once again spoke of US involvement in the 12-day conflict, and how it “destroyed the Iran nuclear threat". He also claimed again that he had "ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years, peace to the Middle East".
The operation, labelled 'Midnight Hammer', involved the US using its B-2 bombers to drop 3,000-pound "bunker-buster" bombs on three key Iranian underground nuclear facilities—Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz. At the same time, Israeli forces had struck several of Iran’s ballistic missile sites.
While Trump had said at the time that the attack had obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities, initial reports from the site differed about the extent of the damage.
Still, he has warned Iran against rebuilding its nuclear infrastructure, saying that if it were to do so anyway, "that site would be attacked and would be wiped out before they even got close".
Just last week, he also hinted that he was open to US-Iran talks, just as long as Tehran did not restore its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.
“You know, we can knock out their missiles very quickly, we have great power.”
