Netanyahu says it’s time to remove Iran threat “once and for all”

Invoking Iran’s pursuit to rebuild its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday it’s time to eliminate the threat from Iran “once and for all” in a speech about forming a new government following a meeting earlier this week with opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot.

“The Iranian regime, which seeks to destroy Israel, is once again working to revive its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said, translated from Hebrew. “And let this be clear: This murderous regime, which did not hesitate to murder many thousands of its own people, will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons against us.”

“It will do so the moment it manages to resume uranium enrichment and the accelerated development of nuclear weapons,” he continued.

Netanyahu said he met with Eisenkot on Thursday, and the meeting “only strengthened my understanding of how essential it is to establish a national unity government at this time.”

In last month’s election, Netanyahu’s Likud party and its allies received 53 seats in the Knesset, short of the 61 needed to form a government and keep him as prime minister. Eisenkot’s Yashar party and its allies won 48 seats, while the Arab coalition took 19 seats. 

Netanyahu wondered aloud why Eisenkot would potentially side with the Arab coalition to form what he called a “fragile and dangerous government.” Netanyahu is clinging to hopes Eisenkot will agree to a deal to establish a majority and cut out the Arab parties, who he has accused of stealing the election. On Saturday, he referred to them as “supporters of terrorism.”

“We must remove this existential threat from over our heads once and for all,” Netanyahu said, referring to Iran. “A narrow government, or a government that relies on supporters of terrorism, will not be able to achieve this monumental goal. But a national unity government can achieve it in time, thereby ensuring Israel’s security for many years to come.”

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthi militant group said it intercepted and destroyed two drones on Saturday. 

The drones were intercepted near Riyadh and over the southern region. The coalition was not more specific about where in the south it had been intercepted. Riyadh, the country’s capital, is located in central Saudi Arabia, though hundreds of miles from the Houthis’ base of operations in Yemen.

It was a busy week of drone and missile interceptions by the Saudis. The two drones intercepted on Saturday afternoon were the first since one was fired at the eastern, oil-rich region of the country on Thursday. Multiple drones in the east and near Riyadh were interrupted Thursday, while two ballistic missiles were shot down on Wednesday in the western part of Saudi Arabia and three others were shot down near Riyadh, according to the coalition. 

Two drones were also intercepted on Wednesday, the coalition said, though one destroyed near Mecca was disavowed by the Houthis, who have said they will not target the holy city.

Multiple drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles were also intercepted over different parts of Saudi Arabia on Monday, the same day the coalition said it took out a weapons manufacturing facility in Yemen.

Iran and the United States should “immediately” allow fertilizer shipments through the Strait of Hormuz to ease the crisis in some of the most vulnerable countries, a senior U.N. official said Saturday.

Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of the U.N. Office for Project Services, told the COP31 climate talks in the Turkish resort city of Antalya that the lack of fertilizers could push millions into poverty.

While Iran and the United States are still trying to negotiate an end to the conflict, Moreira da Silva said he had the same message for both countries.

“They should continue their negotiations about the comprehensive deal — but that deal should not avoid an immediate, exceptional, limited, and time-bound solution for the fertilizers,” he said.

“Basically what we need is five vessels a day with fertilizers,” he added.

Before the conflict, a third of the world’s fertilizers passed through the Strait of Hormuz, and since the blockades, their prices had risen by 30%, Moreira da Silva said.

Sudan’s finance minister recently told him the price of food there had doubled in six months, he added. In Nepal, they told him that farmers could no longer afford to buy fertilizers.

“So it’s very important that we are aware that countries such as Mozambique, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka are facing very significant impact,” Moreira da Silva said.

The effects of this shortage could be catastrophic, he warned.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps claims to have shot down an American MQ-1 “Predator” drone for the second straight day on Saturday.

This was the 17th MQ-1 drone shot down by Iran, according to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, though that number was not possible to verify. The U.S. certainly has lost a number of the drones, however, either to them being shot down or crashing.

The drone was shot down over Iran’s Qeshm Island, which is located along the northern coast of the Strait of Hormuz. Like Friday, the strike was credited to Iran’s alleged new air defense system.

The U.S. has lost dozens of unmanned aircraft during the war with Iran, according to a congressional report dated Oct. 5. Forty-five MQ-9 Reaper drones have been lost, just through mid-August, while at least three Predator drones were previously destroyed, according to the report. 

There were at least 81 manned or unmanned aircraft lost during the war in Iran through early October, according to the report. As of Aug. 1, the losses amounted to a cost of between $1.9 billion and $3.3 billion.

Iran’s military said on Saturday that fires had broken out on a total of three oil tankers that struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has insisted vessels obtain its authorization to cross the strait since war erupted with the United States in February, and has attacked ships that do not comply.

“A short while ago, two oil tankers that had switched off their radar and positioning systems and were secretly attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorized route exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine,” the Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement on the incident in the south of the waterway, carried by the Iranian state broadcaster early on Saturday.

A separate statement from Iran’s conventional navy said another tanker “navigating through the unsafe and prohibited zone east of the Strait of Hormuz with its tracking and identification systems switched off, caught fire and was forced to stop after striking a naval mine”.

The statements did not provide the names or origins of the vessels but the Guards said one of those hit in south Hormuz was a supertanker.

CBS/AFP

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that explosions rang out on two oil tankers after they struck mines in the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran has restricted navigation.

Since war erupted in February, Tehran has insisted that vessels obtain its authorization to cross the strait and has attacked ships that do not comply.

“A short while ago, two oil tankers that had switched off their radar and positioning systems and were secretly attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz through an unauthorized route exploded and caught fire after striking a naval mine,” the Guards’ navy said in a statement carried by an Iranian state broadcaster early on Saturday.

The statement did not provide the names or origins of the vessels, but said one was a supertanker.

The U.S., in response to Tehran’s choking of the strategic trade route, has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and provides military support to tankers using the waterway.

In recent weeks, Iran’s armed forces have reported several fires or explosions on board ships in the strait, often saying the vessels had struck mines.

On Friday, the Guards released footage of a large plume of smoke rising from a vessel it said was carrying liquefied gas and hit a mine in the south of the strait.

The U.S. military, however, has said it has cleared the main routes through the waterway of mines. 

U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday that civilians across Yemen are increasingly being hit by drones, missiles, airstrikes and shelling in their homes, markets and other places once considered safe.

In one of the deadliest attacks since fighting resumed between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and Saudi-backed government forces, at least 30 people died in airstrikes on a market in Taiz province on Nov. 6, according to the Houthis.

Under international law, Haq said all parties must take “all feasible precautions” to avoid and minimize the death and injury to civilians.

Oil prices swung a day after President Trump said the U.S. didn’t “need a deal with Iran” even as the conflict in the Middle East drags on. 

Brent crude, the international standard, initially jumped early Friday before easing. It was mostly unchanged at $95.89 a barrel at 2 p.m. ET. It was trading near $72 per barrel in late February before the Iran war began. 

Rising energy prices because of the U.S. war with Iran have been fueling inflation. Household budgets are getting squeezed directly by higher gasoline costs, but pricier gas and diesel raise costs for anything that is shipped. Prices for everything from food to clothing have been rising.

The latest wholesale inflation report released Friday also shows food prices and other costs gaining ground, despite some easing for energy costs.

CBS/AP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani signed a mutual defense agreement Friday in Istanbul, according to Erdogan’s office.

In a statement posted on X, the office said the two sides would continue working together to prevent the resurgence of war in the Gulf region and “persuade the parties to resolve their problems through diplomacy.”

There were no further details on the defense agreement between the countries, which already share deep military ties.

The deal follows a joint defense agreement signed between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in August in which the three nations pledged to treat an attack on one as an attack on all. Qatar, in its readout of the deal, praised that defense pact and said this one would carry similar weight.

“(The deal has the) aim of strengthening collective defense and promoting regional security and stability, and a unified stance in confronting any external armed attack targeting either party or both of them,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has signaled an openness to other regional countries joining the pact, including Egypt.

Even though Turkey and the Saudis agreed to the defense pact, Turkey has not yet become involved militarily in defending Saudi Arabia from attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. Qatar repeatedly came under fire from Iranian attacks during the opening weeks of the U.S.- and Israeli-led war.

CBS/AP

The Iranian military claimed it shot down a U.S. MQ-1 “Predator” drone near Kuhestak, a city on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

The Iranian news outlet shared photos of the supposed downed drone. The U.S. military did not immediately comment on whether one of its drones was shot down.

The Iranian army said its new air defense system was responsible for shooting it down. There have been several confirmed and more claimed shoot-downs of Predator drones in Iran throughout the war.

“We will not hesitate for a moment in safeguarding and defending the territorial integrity, maritime borders and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Army Public Relations Office said in a statement.

There was good news in the International Energy Agency’s monthly oil report for the first time in awhile: Oil supplies are surpassing demand.

“The oil market is showing tentative signs of rebalancing, with global oil supplies surpassing demand for the first time since the outbreak of the war in Iran,” the IEA said in its November report. “Observed oil inventories rose by 52 (million barrels), or 1.7 (million barrels per day), in October as Gulf exports recovered much faster than global oil demand.”

The war is still having its effects on the oil market, but the report noted positive movement there as well.

“Despite continued attacks on tankers, Gulf oil exports, excluding Oman, reached 18.4 mb/d last month, 26% below pre-war levels,” it said. “The recent increase was led by crude, with flows rising to 15 mb/d, equivalent to 82% of pre-war levels in October.”

The good news should continue, the report said.

“Our November supply and demand balances suggest that the global oil market will return to a surplus in 4Q26, with a more substantial build in 2027,” it said, before adding the caveat, “As always, downside risks to the forecast persist, as attacks on shipping undermine maritime security, which is pivotal to a sustained recovery.”

Much of the increased oil coming out of the Gulf is doing so under U.S. military protection, even as Iran has increased its attacks on oil tankers exiting through the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. is facilitating ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman, but it is a costly, and for now indefinite, process.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent came out swinging against Iran in the wake of death threats that have caused him to move to a military base for added security.

“F the Iranian leadership,” Bessent told CNBC on Friday. “I’m not going to be cowered that they have initiated death threats against me. The other members of the Cabinet are not going to be cowered. And it means what we are doing with Operation Economic Outcast is working.”

“The IRGC, they’re like a dangerous, cornered animal,” he added.

Bessent has come under added threats since the start of a ramped-up sanctions campaign called Operation Economic Outcast in late August, dubbed at the time as “economic D-Day.” 

Bessent also said the military action undertaken by President Trump was “100% … worth it.” 

“President Trump took action that had been needed for 47 years, and we’ll get on the other side of this,” Bessent told CNBC. “Now, President Trump doesn’t think we need a deal, and we’re just going to keep squeezing them.”

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was no need to restart military operations in Iran since the economic sanctions were working so well.

The U.S. military on Friday denied a claim by Iranian forces to have destroyed a U.S. early-warning radar installation in Bahrain, acknowledging that Iran had launched two attack drones at the small Persian Gulf nation, but saying “both were shot down by U.S. forces.”

The claim, attributed to Iran’sIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was published earlier Friday by various Iranian state media outlets, along with an image said to show the damaged radar station. 

In its “Fact Check” post on social media, the U.S. Central Command said there were no injuries or damage caused by the interception of the Iranian drones. 

Iran had peppered Bahrain and most other U.S. Gulf allies with daily rocket and drone strikes earlier in the war, but far fewer attacks have been reported since the summer, when major hostilities ended. 

The United Nations nuclear watchdog agency is “increasingly concerned” about its lack of access to an underground Iranian uranium enrichment facility that Tehran has acknowledged exists, but refused to allow inspectors to visit, according to Reuters.

“The Agency does not know IFEP’s exact location, status for safeguards purposes or whether it contains nuclear material,” Reuters quoted the International Atomic Energy Agency as saying in a quarterly report to member states, referring to the Isfahan Fuel Enrichment Plant (IFEP). 

The IAEA asked Iran to allow inspectors to visit the IFEP in February, but Tehran refused, telling the U.N. agency that “conditions resulting from acts of aggression and the continuation of threats have created a situation in which the normal implementation of safeguards is legally untenable and materially impracticable.”

The refusal came after the U.S. and Israel pummeled Iranian nuclear sites, including Isfahan, with a wave of missile strikes in June 2025.

The IAEA said in a September report that, since then, it had observed, in satellite imagery, “regular vehicular activity around the entrance to the tunnel complex at Isfahan,” where the agency believes some of the Iran’s roughly 900-pound highly-enriched uranium stockpile is believed to have been buried by the June 2025 missile strikes.

“In light of this activity,” the IAEA said it requested in February that Iran give inspectors access “as soon as possible,” but Tehran has continued to refuse, the nuclear watchdog agency says, citing the attacks on its territory.

The Trump administration has framed Iran’s controversial nuclear program as the primary justification for the war, but it has vacillated during the conflict between suggesting Iran would give up its remaining stockpile voluntarily, to declaring the issue largely resolved.

“More than 80 percent of their nuclear industrial base — gone,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared earlier this week,” adding: “CRAZY ISLAMISTS IN TEHRAN WILL NEVER EVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

But Iran has agreed to nothing so far regarding its uranium stockpiles or its enrichment program, including renewed IAEA inspections. It has refused to negotiate with the U.S. on the topic until a formal ceasefire is implemented.

On Wednesday, a top Iranian security official insisted Tehran would “not remove even a single particle of enriched nuclear material from the country.”

President Trump said Thursday that, “we don’t need a deal with Iran,” suggesting he may be willing to leave the matter unresolved.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says it destroyed a U.S. early warning radar in Bahrain, the first such claim in months.

It couldn’t be independently verified.

A report by Iran’s official IRNA news agency on Friday quoted a statement by the Guard as saying the attack on the U.S. radar system followed a U.S. strike on a telecommunications pole in the southern Iranian port of Sirik.

Bahrain has been one of the strongest critics of Iran and is home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The statement said the attack on the radar was a serious warning to the U.S. to cease its strikes. It was the first report by Iran of targeting a facility in Bahrain since September.

During an air war that began in February, Iran targeted U.S. bases in neighboring Arab nations including Bahrain in retaliation for U.S. strikes. Since then, Iran routinely targets oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical waterway for international oil shipments.

Iran continues to warn ships not to pass through the strategic shipping lane without its approval. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said Friday that there was an explosion on a ship that struck a mine in the Strait of Hormuz, where Tehran has sought to restrict navigation.

Since the outbreak of the Middle East war in late February, Tehran has insisted that vessels obtain its authorization to traverse the strait and has attacked vessels that don’t comply.

In response, the United States imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports and began providing military support to tankers using the vital trade route.

“A few hours ago, a ship carrying liquefied natural gas east of the Strait of Hormuz tried to cross an unauthorized passageway south of the strait, but was hit by a naval mine and exploded violently,” the IRGC said on Friday, without giving the name or origin of the vessel.

In recent weeks, Iran’s armed forces have repeatedly reported fires or explosions on ships in the strait, often saying they’d hit mines.

The U.S. military, however, claims to have cleared the waterway’s routes of mines.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, told Al Jazeera that U.S. officials requested that Russian President Vladimir Putin facilitate negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

“It was the Americans who, during a visit to Moscow, spoke with Mr. Putin and asked him to speak with Iran so that, in any case, Iran would agree to speak directly with them,” Qalibaf said.

The White House did not directly respond to the Associated Press’ query about whether the U.S. had asked Putin to facilitate talks with Iran.

President Trump’s senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Russia Thursday, where they met Putin to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine. In their remarks after the meeting, neither Putin nor Mr. Trump’s envoys mentioned any discussion about Iran.

-CBS/AP

President Trump told Vice President JD Vance on Thursday to shift his focus away from the Iran war and instead devote himself to fighting what the president claims is corruption and crime in Democratic-controlled cities and states.

Vance, who served as the lead negotiator for a short-lived truce in the eight-month war, has been blunt in blaming the conflict — and the economic reverberations it has caused — for Republicans’ sweeping losses in last week’s midterm elections in the United States.

But Mr. Trump brusquely told Vance, in a social media post, to shift his energies away from the Iran war to what he argues is a more pressing – and perhaps more politically salient – issue after Republicans were trounced at the polls.

“We don’t need a deal with Iran,” Mr. Trump said in the post. “Those days have long since passed. We’ve got their money, Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we’ve got their Strait!”

Mr. Trump earlier this week said he believed the war “militarily is effectively over,” and appeared to double down on that message by pointedly directing Vance “to focus his complete and total attention” on his anti-fraud campaign.

His directive came after The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday evening that Vance was weighing engaging in a new round of direct talks with a senior Iranian official. The vice president’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

–CBS/AP