Three unnamed sources, including one official and two others, told Axios on Dec. 31, 2025, that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the possibility of attacking Iran again in 2026, during his meeting with President Trump on Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. According to Axios, Trump and Netanyahu both saw the 12-day war on Iran in June 2025 as a tremendous success, but Netanyahu has argued that more strikes might be necessary to prevent Tehran from rebuilding its capabilities. Trump said after the meeting that if Iran tries to rebuild its nuclear program, the U.S. will destroy it again. He also said he’d prefer to strike a nuclear deal with Tehran. The U.S. official said Trump would likely back “round two” of attacks, if the U.S. sees Iran taking real and verifiable steps to reconstitute its nuclear program, but “the tension will be in agreeing what reconstitution means.” The U.S. official said, however, that Trump and Netanyahu didn’t agree on any specific timetable, threshold, or detailed understandings about future military action.
Axios notes that some U.S. and Israeli officials think the likeliest spark for an Israel-Iran war in the near term is miscalculation—with one side trying to preempt a suspected attack by the other. Just last week, Israeli officials warned the Trump administration that a missile exercise by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards could be cover for a strike.
