Former US Secretary of State John Kerry says Netanyahu lobbied for Iran strikes for decades

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for decades been pressuring for a strike on Iran.

Speaking with MS Now's Jen Psaki on her show The Briefing on Friday, Kerry said that Netanyahu has been pushing for US strikes on Iran for decades, approaching multiple US administrations for this.

"He wanted us to strike. He came to President Obama. He made a presentation that asked to strike. President Obama refused."

"President Biden refused. President Bush refused. The only president who has agreed to this, obviously, is President Trump," Kerry added.

He also said that reporting by the New York Times on Netanyahu's attempts to convince the Trump administration to launch a war earlier in February "seemed like good reporting". The report said that Netanyahu argued Iran was "ripe for regime change".

The US-Israeli campaign against Iran has seen thousands of strikes against Iranian military sites and senior military and government officials, as well as civilian infrastructure.

US-Israeli strikes have killed over 2,000 Iranians and wounded a further 26,500, according to the health ministry.

Iran has retaliated by firing drones and ballistic missiles across the region, targeting Israel, US bases in the Gulf, and energy infrastructure, as well as closing the Strait of Hormuz. The war has caused a global energy crisis.

On Friday, US and Iranian delegations arrived in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, for the start of negotiations aimed at ending the war following the start of a ceasefire on Wednesday.

Kerry, who was part of Obama's effort to negotiate an agreement limiting Iran's nuclear programme that culminated in the signing of the 2015 nuclear deal, said of the talks: "That negotiation is going to be much tougher now, believe me. It was tough when we began it, when there was great enmity between the sides."

"Now there's been this massive bombing and destruction, and a challenge to their leadership with everybody there in government knowing someone who’s been killed over the course of the last weeks and months."

US-Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the first day of the war, and other key Iranian leaders were assassinated over the course of the war including Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, Khamenei advisor Ali Shamkhani, IRGC head Mohammad Pakpour

"That's going to be harder for them to come back and be charitable, with respect to any measure, and so this is going to be a very serious and difficult negotiation to have."