Netanyahu to meet Trump in US to discuss Iran, says Israeli PM

The Israeli PM wants US-Iran talks to address Tehran’s ballistic missiles – a red line for Tehran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head to the United States to meet Donald Trump as the US president confirmed plans to hold follow-on discussions with Iran after the weekend talks in Oman between the two foes, according to Netanyahu’s office.

The talks will address the US’s ongoing negotiations with Iran, said the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Monday, as Netanyahu believes Tehran should be pushed for “limitations on ballistic missiles” and ending its support for regional groups, such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

The planned meeting will be the seventh between Trump and Netanyahu since the US president returned to office last year. Analysts say Netanyahu will likely urge Trump to push Tehran on its ballistic missile programme, seen as a red line by Tehran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has maintained talks will remain focused on the nuclear issue and not its missile programme, which he deemed “non-negotiable”.

On Sunday, President Masoud Pezeshkian described the indirect talks held in Oman on Friday as a “step forward” and said his administration favours dialogue.

“Our reasoning on the nuclear issue is based on rights stipulated in the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Pezeshkian wrote in a post on X on Sunday. “The Iranian nation has always responded to respect with respect, but cannot withstand the language of force.”

Iranian officials have signalled eagerness for nuclear-only negotiations, while rejecting a massive US military build-up in the region.

Though both Israel and the US are antagonistic towards Iran, Israel has taken an even harder-line stance on the negotiations, which Trump has said will resume this week.

The US president said the last round of talks that ended in Oman on Friday was “very good” and that Iran “looks like it wants to make a deal very badly”.

“If they don’t make a deal, the consequences are very steep,” Trump added.

‘A long way to build trust’

The US-Iran talks come after weeks of Trump threatening military action if Iran did not strike a deal. He escalated pressure by deploying an aircraft carrier and accompanying warships to the Middle East.

World powers and regional states fear a breakdown in the negotiations could lead to conflict spilling over to the rest of the oil-producing region.

Iranian Minister Araghchi said the talks with the US are “a good start”, but that “there is a long way to go to build trust”.

Trita Parsi, cofounder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a foreign policy think tank, said the outcome of the US’s talks with Iran could hinge on whether Washington focuses on its nuclear demands, which are “absolutely achievable”, or adopts Israel’s maximalist position.

“If we see a continuation of the pursuit of Israeli red lines, I presume that those talks will collapse very shortly,” Parsi told Al Jazeera.