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President Donald Trump announced on Monday during a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States will begin direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program.
Trump noted that the scheduled meetings with high-level Iranian officials are set for Saturday.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday. “Maybe a deal’s going to be made, that would be great. We are meeting very importantly on Saturday, at almost the highest level.”
Trump previously warned that Iran could face military strikes and additional economic sanctions if it failed to reach an agreement with the U.S. regarding its nuclear program.
Speaking in a phone interview with NBC News last month, Trump confirmed that discussions were taking place between U.S. and Iranian officials but did not provide further details.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” he stated. “But there’s also a chance that if they don’t agree, I will impose secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago.”
During his first term from 2017 to 2021, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and several world powers. That deal had imposed strict limitations on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief. After pulling out, Trump reinstated extensive U.S. sanctions, prompting Iran to expand its uranium enrichment program far beyond the deal’s original restrictions.
So far, Tehran has dismissed Trump’s warnings, resisting pressure to negotiate under the threat of military action.
According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi stated that Iran had responded through Oman to a letter from Trump urging the country to agree to a new nuclear deal, USA TODAY reported on Thursday.
Waltz shared the comments during a March interview on “Fox News Sunday” concerning a potential strike by Israel on Iran’s nuclear program.
“I can speak to what the president has repeatedly said and that is Iran can never have a nuclear weapon,” Waltz said. “That not only would be existential for Israel, I think it would be existential for the entire world, because it could kick off a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.”