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WASHINGTON — In his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on April 7, President Donald Trump said that the US has begun negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
Trump also raised the proposal he made during the Israeli Prime Minister’s first visit to the White House in February: for the US to take control of the Gaza Strip and depopulate it. Netanyahu framed that proposal as allowing Palestinians the choice whether to migrate from the territory.
“It’s going to take years to rebuild Gaza, and in the meantime, people can have an option,” said Netanyahu.
The two men discussed the 17% tariffs Trump recently placed on Israel — which the president did not say he would lift, instead referring to the extensive US aid to Israel.
Trump has been pressuring Iran into talks, and otherwise threatening strong military action — bombing Iran — to combat Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started,” Trump said. “It will go on Saturday [April 12]. We have a very big meeting and we’ll see what can happen, and I think 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. So we’re going to see if we can avoid it.”
The talks appear to be the most significant US-Iranian diplomacy since the 2015 agreement on Iran’s nuclear program by President Barack Obama. Netanyahu and Trump revile that agreement.
Netanyahu was its fiercest public opponent while it was being negotiated, addressing a joint session of Congress in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the elected officials to block the deal.
Obama signed the deal without Congress’ approval.
Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 and imposed harsh sanctions, which his successor Joe Biden lifted.
We’re both united in the goal that Iran does not ever get nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.
“If it can be done diplomatically in the full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing but whatever happens we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons.”
An agreement with Libya in 2003 rid the country of its nuclear weapons.
Israel struck sites in Iran last April and October year in response to a direct missile attacks by Iran.
This was the first direct fire between the two countries.
Trump warned of steep consequences if the US does not reach a satisfactory agreement with Iran.
“If the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran’s going to be in great danger . . . because they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. If the talks fail, “it’ll be a very bad day for Iran.”
When asked by reporters whether he planned to remove the Israel tariffs, Trump said “maybe not” — and brought up America’s military aid to Israel.
“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” he said. “You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year — and congratulations, by the way, that’s pretty good — but we give Israel billions of dollars a year, billions, it’s one of the highest.”
