Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has drawn a hard line for Washington, insisting that any new nuclear deal with Iran must involve the physical destruction of Tehran's enrichment infrastructure.

As US diplomats scramble to revive talks with Iran in Geneva, Benjamin Netanyahu has issued a stark ultimatum: "Dismantle, do not just freeze." The Israeli Premier's demand that Iran's nuclear capability be not merely paused but physically erased sets a near-impossible bar for negotiations, raising the specter of a breakdown that could ignite the Middle East.

For Kenya and East Africa, the stakes are far from distant. Any escalation in the Persian Gulf threatens the Bab el-Mandeb strait—a critical choke point for global shipping. A conflict involving Iran would almost certainly send oil prices skyrocketing, inflicting immediate pain at the pump in Nairobi and driving up the cost of living in an already fragile economy.

The "Zero Enrichment" Doctrine

Netanyahu's position contradicts the incremental approach favored by some Western diplomats. He is calling for the removal of all enriched material from Iranian soil and the dismantling of the centrifuges themselves. "There shall be no enrichment capability," he told Jewish leaders, effectively ruling out the "sunset clauses" that defined the 2015 JCPOA deal.

This maximalist stance puts President Donald Trump's administration in a bind. While Trump has expressed a willingness to cut a deal ("Let's give it a shot"), Netanyahu is pressuring him to accept nothing less than total capitulation from Tehran. The friction between these allies could determine the trajectory of global peace.

Global Ripple Effects

• Oil Shock: Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz would spike crude prices, hitting Kenyan import bills hard.
• Security: Israel's threat to strike Iran's missile program if talks fail introduces extreme volatility.
• Diplomacy: The US is deploying a second aircraft carrier, signaling that the military option remains on the table.

The View from Nairobi

While Kenyan diplomats watch from the sidelines, the economic ministers are sweating. Kenya's economy is deeply sensitive to global fuel shocks. A collapse in these talks, followed by an Israeli strike and an Iranian retaliation, would trigger an inflationary wave that no subsidy could contain. Netanyahu's hard line is being drawn in Jerusalem, but its economic tremors would be felt in the matatus of Nairobi.

"Trust but verify, distrust and always verify," Netanyahu quoted Reagan. In this high-stakes nuclear poker game, the world—including Africa—is holding its breath.