Former Israeli Prime Minister Warns of Iranian Nuclear Enrichment
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tells Brian Kilmeade that Iran is using nuclear talks to buy time in rebuilding its nuclear infrastructure. He argues that Iran is a “terrorist octopus” and that the US military presence is crucial to regional stability.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is not convinced that the Iranian regime is sincere about ongoing talks with the United States over its nuclear program.
“I think Iran is going to try to do what they always do, which is buy time until they get out of the water,” Bennett told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday.
Thursday’s talks, mediated by Oman, took place in Geneva and focused on Iran’s nuclear program. They came as the United States had built up a significant amount of military resources in the Middle East.
Oman’s foreign minister said after Thursday’s meeting that “significant progress” had been made and “discussions at technical level will take place in Vienna next week.” This was reported by Trey Yingst, chief foreign correspondent for Fox News.
President Donald Trump made clear the desired outcome of the talks during his State of the Union address, emphasizing that he will “never allow the world’s largest sponsor of terror… to possess a nuclear weapon.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sits next to a senior military official in Iran. (Getty Images)
Former Israeli Prime Minister Bennett believes the regime is determined to pursue its nuclear ambitions.
“They are currently rebuilding nuclear capabilities,” he said, pointing to recently observed activity near the Natanz facility, which was hit by Israeli and US forces in June 2025.
The debris of the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant at Iran’s Natanz nuclear site is seen on December 3, 2025, on the left. On the right, a satellite image taken on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, shows a new roof above the building. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
“A country that does not seek nuclear weapons does not need any enrichment within its country,” he said. “The only reason a regime does this is because it wants nuclear weapons.”
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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi stated this on Tuesday on X “Under no circumstances will Iran ever develop a nuclear weapon,” saying that Iranians have the right to use “peaceful nuclear technology for our people.”
Bennett does not believe these claims.
“From now on, Iran is pursuing intercontinental ballistic missiles,” he argued, clarifying that “in plain English” they are missiles that could land in “New York, Tennessee or California.”
“The only reason a country develops this kind of thing is because of a tip-off of nuclear war,” he said. “Now is the time to take action.”
Israel’s 13th prime minister argued that “there will not be a point in history when Iran will be at such a vulnerable point,” in the wake of anti-government protests that left thousands dead.
Bennett said that over the years the regime has killed “32,000 of its own citizens” and thousands of Americans and Israelis through its proxies whom he calls a “terrorist octopus.”
One of those octopus arms is on Israel’s northern border, in the form of the Lebanese Iran-backed group Hezbollah, which was crippled by Israeli attacks and the 2024 assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
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“Do you believe that Hezbollah will not get involved, or do you think you will be attacked by what is left of Hamas and Hezbollah, should the shooting start?” Kilmeade asked Bennett.
‘Don’t know. We have to be prepared somehow,” Bennett said. “The 10 million Israelis who live here in Israel, we are the boots on the ground of the free world.”
“But we understand that it is a price we are willing to pay to remove this threat from the world.”
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