Trump, for First Time, Discloses America Is Negotiating Directly With Iran on Its Nuclear Program

America is conducting direct, high-level talks with Iran, President Trump told reporters Monday after a long meeting with Prime Minister Netayahu. A senior member in the Israeli guest’s entourage told reporters earlier that the goal of such talks should be to force Iran into a deal that would “resemble Libya.”In January Mr. Netanayhu was the first world leader to come to the White House after Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Now he is the first world leader to visit following last week’s “liberation day,” which has jolted the established global trade system. At their meeting Mr. Netanyahu vowed to remove all Israeli trade barriers on American goods, and to be a “model for many countries” to do the same. Yet, Mr. Trump was uncommitted about easing the 17 percent tariff he levied on Israel last week. Following a quickly denied report that the White House might ease global tariffs across the board, American stock markets dipped further at the Monday close. Following a meeting with Mr. Netanyahu that included a lunch and a one-one-one conversation, Mr. Trump, for the first time, disclosed that a Saturday meeting at an undisclosed location could lead to a new nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic. “We’re dealing with them directly,” Mr. Trump said, adding there will be a “very impotent meeting on Saturday at almost the highest levels.”Speaking to Israeli reporters prior to Mr. Netanyahu’s arrival at the White House, an unidentified senior government official expressed doubt that a deal with Iran was possible. “It happened in Libya and Ukraine,” the official reportedly said. “I think it won’t happen, realistically.” There is “no point in having negotiations just to negotiate,” he added. Washington advocates of diplomacy with Tehran accused Mr. Netanyahu of an attempt to sabotage the talks even before they began. “It would be extremely foolish of Trump to take advice from Netanyahu,” the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi wrote on X. “This accused war criminal has for more than 20 years sought to prevent/sabotage talks in order to trap the US into a forever war with Iran.”The Libya model, which Mr. Netanyahu cited in the White House press conference, is a reference to a 2003 agreement by the country’s leader, Muammar Qaddafi, to verifiably dismantle its budding nuclear program, including stockpiles of enriched uranium. Mr. Netanyahu “knows that Iran will never accept a Libya-style dismantling of its nuclear program,” Mr. Parsi writes. The Israeli briefer expressed confidence that Mr. Trump “is aware” of the pitfalls of a half-baked deal, adding, “I don’t have to tell him.”At the White House Mr. Trump said, “If the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it, great danger, because they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” The Islamic Republic “cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks are unsuccessful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran if that’s the case.”Mr. Trump invited Mr. Netanyahu to the White House over the weekend while the premier was on a visit to Hungary. Beside what Mr. Trump called “the obvious” — Iran — there was also the issue of tariffs to discuss. Although Israel became the first country last week to remove all barriers from American imports, the administration slapped it with a 17 percent tariff. “We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “We think it’s the right thing to do. And we’re going to also eliminate trade barriers, a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily. And I think Israel can serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same.”Mr. Trump, though, declined to explicitly reciprocate by easing tariffs on Israeli goods. “Maybe not,” he said. “You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year. That’s a lot.” Yet, he kept the possibility open by saying, “We’re not taking care of our enemies anymore, but we do take care of our friends.” He indicated, for the first time, that onerous tariffs might be just the starting point of a negotiated deal. Mr. Netanyahu is “going to do things that. In all fairness, other countries, if they said that, would have never even thought about doing it,” Mr. Trump said. “Now they’re offering things to us that we would have never even thought of asking them for, because they’re experiencing a lot of hurt, and the hurt is that they’ve taken advantage of us and we finally fought back.”

Trump, for First Time, Discloses America Is Negotiating Directly With Iran on Its Nuclear Program

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