WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. will hold direct talks with Iran about its nuclear program, while warning the Iranians they would be in “great danger” if the talks don’t succeed in persuading them to abandon their nuclear weapons program.
The president, in comments to reporters after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the talks will start Saturday. He insisted Tehran can’t get nuclear weapons.
“We’re dealing with them directly and maybe a deal is going to be made,” Trump said. He added that “doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious.”
Asked if he would commit to military action against Iran should his negotiators be unable to come to terms with Tehran, Trump responded that “Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it.”
“If the talks aren’t successful, I think it’s going to be a very bad day for Iran,” Trump said.
Iran’s mission at the United Nations had no immediate comment Monday.
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Trump recently sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling for direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program. But Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said late last month that Iran had rejected Trump’s entreaty while leaving open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington.
But Trump has consistently called on Iran, which is the chief sponsor of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi militants in Yemen, to abandon its nuclear program or face a reckoning.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump told NBC News in late March. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
Tehran’s chief envoy to the U.N., Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani, has called on members of the Security Council in a series of letters to condemn Trump’s threats of bombing Iran.
Trump during his first White House term withdrew the U.S. from the landmark nuclear accord with Iran negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration.
Netanyahu says he supports Trump’s diplomatic efforts to reach a settlement with Iran, adding that Israel and the U.S. share the same goal of ensuring that Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.
The Israeli leader, known for his hawkish views on Iran and past calls for military pressure, said he would welcome a diplomatic agreement along the lines of Libya’s deal with the international community in 2003.
“I think that would be a good thing,” he said. “But whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons.”
Trump said the talks would happen “at almost the highest level,” but declined to say where the negotiations would take place or who he was dispatching for the sensitive diplomacy.
The Middle East sultanate of Oman was an important conduit for previous U.S.-Iran negotiations and has been the go-between for the recent swap of letters about reopening negotiations between Trump and Khamenei.
Trump announced plans for the surprise engagement as Netanyahu made a hastily arranged visit to the White House — his second in just over two months — to discuss the tariffs Trump has unleashed on countries around the world, Iran’s nuclear program and the Israel-Hamas war.
In withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, Trump declared he was making the world safer, but he also deepened his isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility.
The agreement, which also included Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, had lifted most U.S. and international economic sanctions against Iran.
“I think it’ll be, different and maybe a lot stronger,” Trump said on how a new deal might be different from the one negotiated by Obama officials.
Trump and Netanyahu said they also discussed tensions with Iran, Israel-Turkey ties and the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli leader last year. Trump in February signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.
Before his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump held a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. All three leaders have been key interlocutors in efforts to tamp down tensions in the Middle East and bring an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
The prime minister soon after arriving in Washington on Sunday evening met with senior Trump administration officials, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jameson Greer, to discuss the tariffs. And Netanyahu met on Monday with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, ahead of his sit down with the president.
On tariffs, Netanyahu said he assured Trump that his government would move to erase the trade deficit. U.S.-Israel trade was $37 billion last year, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The trade deficit was $7.4 billion.
“We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Netanyahu said “We intend to do it very quickly.”
Trump noted that in addition to the trade deficit the U.S. provides Israel nearly $4 billion in assistance per year — much of it in military aid. Asked if he might be willing to reduce Israel’s tariff rate, Trump replied, “Maybe not, maybe not. Don’t forget we help Israel a lot.”
Eytan Gilboa, an expert on U.S.-Israel relations, said he expected Trump to use the tariffs as leverage to force concessions from Netanyahu.
In Israel’s case, those concessions might not be economic. Trump may pressure Netanyahu to move toward ending the war in Gaza — at the very least through some interim truce with Hamas that would pause the fighting and free more hostages. Gilboa said Trump is hoping to return from his first overseas trip — expected next month to Saudi Arabia — with some movement on a deal to normalize relations with Israel, which would likely require significant Israeli concessions on Gaza.
If he does manage to move toward bolstering ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, that would act as a regional diplomatic counterweight to pressure Iran, against which Trump has threatened new sanctions and suggested military action over its nuclear program.
In a preemptive move last week, Israel announced that it was removing all tariffs on goods from the U.S., mostly on imported food and agricultural products, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
But the tactic failed, and with a 17% rate, Israel was just one of dozens of countries that were slapped with tariffs on Trump’s so-called Liberation Day last week.
Although Israel is a tiny market for U.S. products, the United States is a key trade partner of Israel. Much of that trade is for high-tech services, which are not directly affected by the tariffs, but key Israeli industries could be impacted.
The Manufacturers Association of Israel estimates that the tariffs will cost Israel about $3 billion in exports each year and lead to the loss of 26,000 jobs in industries that include biotechnology, chemicals, plastics and electronics. The World Bank says Israel’s gross domestic product, a measure of economic output, is over $500 billion a year.
“The damage won’t stop at exports,” said Ron Tomer, the group’s president. “It will scare investors, encourage companies to leave Israel and undermine our image as a global center of innovation.”
