From the Liveblog of
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Sa’ar: US and Israel agree on need to dismantle Iran’s uranium enrichment sites
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Standing alongside German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul at a press conference in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities “must be dismantled,” and that the US and Israel agree on this issue.
“The most dangerous regime must not be allowed to obtain the world’s most dangerous weapon. Its uranium enrichment facilities must be dismantled,” says Sa’ar at the Foreign Ministry.
Sa’ar says he “agrees very much” with comments made over the weekend by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is set to take part in the fourth round of US-Iran nuclear talks today. Witkoff had said that the Islamic Republic’s uranium enrichment facilities “have to be dismantled” for Washington to take it at its word that it does not want nuclear arms.
“I think this is the right approach and we hold the same view on the matter,” says Sa’ar.
Asked whether Israel is concerned about recent foreign policy moves by US President Donald Trump that seem to sideline Jerusalem on key regional issues, Sa’ar says, “We are coordinated. It doesn’t mean we must fully agree one hundred percent on every issue.”
“The US is a sovereign state, Israel is a sovereign state. But I believe that we have very, very big common grounds with positions in this US administration, more than in the past…I think the US is our greatest friend and President Trump is a great friend of Israel, and we will work together, we are working together,” he adds.
Sa’ar notes that “there is no other world leader” with whom Trump has spent more time than Netanyahu, echoing remarks made by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee over the weekend, asserting Trump’s alliance with the Jewish state.
Next to Sa’ar, Wadephul says “Iran is an issue that greatly concerns” Germany.
“We share the common position with Israel, as well as with our E3 partners, that Iran must not come into possession of nuclear weapons — and Iran knows that. There is an ongoing discussion. I will certainly address this question throughout the course of May,” he says.
“I represent the common position of the three [E3 partners] who have consistently taken this stance and voted accordingly, and the coordination will continue,” he says.
He adds: “I will also be meeting a colleague tomorrow in London — someone in the UK who could speak directly to this matter — and who will make clear once again that we stand firmly behind this position.”
Earlier today, the two foreign ministers took a tour of Israel’s Arrow missile defense system at the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense, Research and Development, and visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial and museum, according to the Foreign Ministry.
The Times of Israel Community.