WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said the United States would start direct, high-level talks with Iran over its nuclear program on Saturday, in a shock announcement during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday after a meeting that was meant to focus on Israel’s bid to avoid US tariffs.
“Maybe a deal’s going to be made, that would be great. We are meeting very importantly on Saturday, at almost the highest level,” he said.
Trump’s stunning announcement came a day after Iran dismissed direct negotiations on a new deal to curb the Islamic republic’s nuclear program, calling the idea pointless.
The US president pulled out of the last deal in 2018 during his first presidency and there has been widespread speculation that Israel, possibly with US help, might attack Iranian facilities if no new agreement is reached.
Trump said “everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious — and the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with, if they can avoid it.”
The surprise announcement came as Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to personally plead for a reprieve from stinging US tariffs that have shaken the world.
The Israeli premier pledged that he would “eliminate” the trade deficit between the two countries and also knock down trade “barriers.” His country moved to lift its last remaining tariffs on US imports ahead of the meeting.
Netanyahu said he felt Israel could serve “as a model for many countries” when it came to negotiating on tariffs.
Netanyahu and Trump also discussed Gaza, where a short-lived, US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas has collapsed.
Netanyahu said that new negotiations were in the works aimed at getting more hostages released from war-torn Gaza.
“We’re working now on another deal that we hope will succeed, and we’re committed to getting all the hostages out,” Netanyahu said in the Oval Office.
Trump also doubled down on his plan for the US to “control” the Gaza strip — which he described as a “great piece of real estate” — which he initially announced when Netanyahu last visited him in February.
Earlier, Trump greeted Netanyahu outside the West Wing and pumped his fist, before the two leaders — both wearing dark suits, red ties and white shirts — went inside for a meeting in the Oval Office.
A planned press conference between the two leaders was canceled at short notice without explanation in an unusual move but they spoke to a smaller group of pool reporters at length in the Oval Office.
The Israeli premier’s visit is his second to Trump since the US president returned to power and comes at short notice — just days after Trump slapped a 17 percent tariff on Israel in his “Liberation Day” announcement last week.
Trump refused to exempt the top beneficiary of US military aid from his global tariff salvo as he said Washington had a significant trade deficit with Israel.
Netanyahu met with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday night soon after his arrival, according to his office.
The Israeli premier also met Trump’s special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday.
Trump announces direct Iran nuclear talks during meeting with Netanyahu
https://arab.news/5sayb
Trump announces direct Iran nuclear talks during meeting with Netanyahu
- Trump’s announcement came day after Iran dismissed direct negotiations on new deal
- US president pulled out of last deal in 2018 during first presidency
Sudan PM heads to New York for UN talks
- Sudan’s army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said last week he was ready to work with Trump to resolve the conflict
PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s Prime Minister Kamil Idris left for New York on Saturday to meet the UN chief and other officials and discuss humanitarian access and a possible ceasefire, two government sources said.
The trip comes as fighting between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces, which erupted in April 2023, intensifies in southern Kordofan, raising fears of new atrocities similar to those reported in the city of El-Fasher in late October.
Reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions followed the RSF’s capture of the army’s last stronghold in the western
Darfur region.
A Sudanese government source said Idris was expected to meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to “put an end to the worsening humanitarian crisis” in Sudan.
Idris’ adviser, Mohammed Abdel Qader, also said the talks would focus on “facilitating aid access” and reaffirm the government’s commitment to a roadmap handed over to the UN, including a “conditional ceasefire linked to the withdrawal of the RSF from areas and cities it occupies.”
Earlier this month, Guterres said the United Nations was preparing talks with both sides in Geneva, but did not specify a date.
Renewed hopes for diplomacy emerged last month when US President Donald Trump pledged to help end the conflict.
Sudan’s army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said last week he was ready to work with Trump to resolve the conflict.
The RSF says it supports the international ceasefire plan, but heavy fighting continues, notably in Kordofan.
Egypt, a key ally of Sudan’s army, warned on Thursday that escalating violence “directly affects Egyptian national security” and stressed that preserving Sudanese state institutions remains a “red line.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the new year offered a chance for a humanitarian truce in Sudan and urged external countries to use leverage.
“Ninety-nine percent of our focus is this humanitarian truce and achieving that as soon as possible,” Rubio told a news conference.
“And we think that the new year and the upcoming holidays are a great opportunity for both sides to agree to that, and we’re really pushing very hard in that regard,” he said.
Rubio voiced alarm at new reports that humanitarian convoys have been struck.
“What’s happening there is horrifying. It’s atrocious,” he said.
“One day, the story of what’s actually happened there is going to be known, and everyone involved is going to look bad,” he added.
“We’re hopeful that we can make some progress on this, but we know that in order to make progress on this, it will require outside actors to use their leverage,” Rubio said.
