Trump Says He Urged Netanyahu to Keep Iran Talks Alive as Israel Pushes for Broader Terms

Benjamin Netanyahu walked into the White House on Wednesday out of view of reporters and left more than two hours later without saying a word about what had passed between him and President Donald Trump. The silence was filled by Trump himself, who posted afterward on his social media site that it had been a very good meeting but that nothing definitive was reached, apart from his insistence that negotiations with Iran go on to see whether a deal can be made.

Trump wrote that if a deal is possible, he told the Israeli prime minister it would be his preference. If not, he said, the US would have to see what the outcome is. He added that last time Iran decided it was better off without a deal and was struck by US forces, and he hoped Tehran would be more reasonable and responsible this time. In a Tuesday interview with Fox Business Network's Larry Kudlow, he said Iran would be foolish not to deal, that the US took out its nuclear power last time and would have to see whether to take out more, and that a deal must mean no nuclear weapons and no missiles.

It was the seventh meeting between the two men in Trump's second term, and it came days after indirect talks between Washington and Tehran in Oman on Friday. Both sides have projected cautious optimism. Trump said his special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner had held very good talks, that more were planned this week, and that the consequences of failure would be very steep. Netanyahu met Witkoff and Kushner shortly after landing in Washington on Tuesday evening, and his office said they briefed him on the Oman round. On Wednesday he also met Secretary of State Marco Rubio at Blair House, across from the White House.

Netanyahu's office says he wants the negotiations widened to include limits on Iran's ballistic missile program and on its support for militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Before leaving Israel he said he would present the president with the principles he considers essential, important in his view not only to Israel but to anyone who wants peace and security in the Middle East. Israel has long demanded that Iran stop all uranium enrichment, scale back its missiles and cut ties to regional militant groups. Iran has rejected all of it, saying it would accept only some limits on its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

How much sway Netanyahu has over Trump's approach is unclear. Trump first threatened military action over Iran's bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in January, then moved in recent weeks to a pressure campaign aimed at pushing Tehran toward a nuclear deal. Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has spoken of consultations on next steps, called mistrust between the two adversaries a serious challenge, and signaled that Iran will keep insisting on its right to enrich uranium, a major point of contention with Trump.

The backdrop is the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June, in which airstrikes, including US bombing of several Iranian nuclear sites, killed nearly 1,000 people in Iran and almost 40 in Israel. Trump said then that Iran's nuclear capabilities were obliterated, though the extent of the damage remains unclear. Satellite photos have recently shown activity at nuclear sites, raising concern that Iran may be trying to salvage or assess what is left. Araghchi said in November that Iran was no longer enriching uranium because of the damage. Before the war, Iran enriched to 60 percent purity, a short technical step from weapons grade, and the International Atomic Energy Agency said it was the only country doing so without nuclear weapons. Iran is refusing IAEA requests to inspect the bombed sites, and had restricted inspections even earlier, after Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018.

The US has also built up forces in the region, sending an aircraft carrier, guided-missile destroyers and air defense assets. Arab and Islamic countries, including Turkey and Qatar, have urged both sides to show restraint, warning that any strike or retaliation could destabilize a region already strained by the war in Gaza.

Trump said he and Netanyahu also discussed what he called tremendous progress in Gaza and the wider region. Next week he plans to convene the first meeting of his Board of Peace, originally conceived to oversee the next steps of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan but since shaped by Trump's wider ambitions to resolve other crises. Netanyahu has signed on to the board, though that may signal he will skip its first official meeting. What to watch now is whether the indirect talks with Iran resume this week.