Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen expects Trump to act 'assertively against Iran'

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen, a senior member of the Netanyahu coalition government, signaled on Thursday that he hopes that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will act forcefully against the Iranian regime.

Cohen, who is pleased that Trump was re-elected, noted that the U.S. senior staff members appointed by Trump, so far, “certainly support determined action against Iran.”

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, who has been tapped as the next U.S. secretary of state, is a vocal supporter of Israel and backs a tough position on Iran. In addition, Mike Waltz, who is expected to become Trump’s national security advisor, advocates a hawkish policy against the Iranian regime.

“The period of Trump’s previous administration was characterized by greater regional stability,” Cohen told the news agency Reuters.

He said the Middle East region was less volatile than under the incumbent Biden administration.

“Toward the end of his presidency, the sanctions on Iran were close to making Iran to change its behavior on the nuclear issue,” the minister added. “So we certainly hope and believe that the Trump administration’s policy will continue that, and first and foremost, we see the most central issue is acting assertively against Iran,” Cohen emphasized.

The ayatollah regime, which openly calls for Israel’s destruction, is reportedly dangerously close to developing nuclear weapons, which is considered an existential threat for Israel.

Israel has vowed it will prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

While the Iranian regime officially denies that it seeks nuclear weapons, few pundits in the West believe this claim given Tehran’s actions. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei argued that if Tehran decided to develop nuclear weapons, the international community “wouldn’t be able to stop us.”

On Oct, 26, approximately 100 Israeli Air Force (IAF) planes targeted dozens of military sites in Iran. The large Israeli aerial operation was a response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Oct, 1.

Much of Iran’s aerial defenses and missile production facilities were reportedly damaged in the Israeli strike. The Biden administration had reportedly pressured Israel to avoid targeting Iran’s secret nuclear program.

However, the IAF reportedly did destroy a key Iranian secret nuclear weapons research facility in Parchin, outside of Tehran, the Axios news outlet reported on Friday. The report was based on input from three U.S. officials, one current Israeli official, and one former Israeli official. The Israeli strike allegedly set back the Iranian nuclear program.

Turning to regional cooperation, the Israeli energy minister was optimistic that the upcoming Trump administration would facilitate new peace agreements between the Jewish state and the wider Arab world.

“We think he (Trump) is targeting the bottom line. To rein in the threatening actors and create new regional alliances that are very important,” Cohen assessed.

During his first presidency in 2020, Trump brokered the historic Abraham Accords, resulting in normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Although there were hopes of expanding Arab-Israeli peace, no further progress was made during the Biden administration's tenure.

Cohen also believes a ceasefire with the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon is possible.

“I think we are at a point that we are closer to an arrangement than we have been since the start of the war,” he said. However, Cohen warned Hezbollah against new attempts to threaten Israeli northern border communities.

“We will be less forgiving than in the past over attempts to create strongholds in territory near Israel. That’s how we will be, and so that is certainly how we will act,” he asserted.