WASHINGTON — President Trump confirmed Wednesday that he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week not to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities to allow additional time for talks between Washington and Tehran.
“I’d like to be honest. Yes, I did,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“I said I don’t think it’s appropriate. We’re talking, we’re having very good discussions with them. And I said I don’t think it’s appropriate right now… if we can settle it with a very strong document,” the president added.
“I told [Netanyahu] this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution. Now, that could change at any moment. It could change with a phone call, but right now, I think they want to make a deal, and if we can make a deal, it could save a lot of lives.”
Trump spoke with Netanyahu Thursday and said Sunday that there had been promising talks with Iranian leaders over the weekend, suggesting that a potential deal that would restrict Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon could be announced within days.
On Wednesday, the president clarified Wednesday it could happen in “the next couple weeks.”
Trump also sent Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to speak to Netanyahu in Israel over the weekend, where she urged him to follow America’s plan in a “candid” conversation.
“[T]he Secretary reiterated [Trump’s] desire to bring peace to the region and for Iran to never have a nuclear weapon,” a readout of their meeting read.
Trump pulled the US out of former President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Since retaking power in January, he has ordered the strict enforcement of US sanctions, including against oil exports, which was largely unenforced during the Biden administration.
Trump said a potential deal would be “very strong” compared to Obama’s 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the US entered alongside China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
“I don’t trust anybody, so no trust. I want it very strong where we can go in with inspectors,” he said. “We can take whatever we want, we can blow up whatever we want, but nobody getting killed. We can blow up a lab, but nobody’s going to be in the lab, as opposed to everybody being in the lab and blowing it up.”
Vice President JD Vance has suggested that a deal could be negotiated to allow Tehran to have a civil nuclear program be part of the “global economy” again — but they would have to give up their plans for an atomic weapon.
“That would be really good for the Iranian people, but would result in the complete cessation of any chance that they can get a nuclear weapon. That’s what we’re negotiating towards,” Vance told the Munich Leaders Conference earlier this month.
“As the President has said, that’s Option A and Option B — if Option A is very good for the Iranian people and even, you know, some of the folks, the leadership in Iran — option B is very bad. It’s very bad for everybody, and it’s not what we want, but it’s better than option C, which is Iran getting a nuclear weapon. That is what is completely off the table for the American administration. No ifs, ands, or buts.”
