After a three-hour meeting in the White House yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump quickly took to Truth Social to announce the results: no decisions were made. “There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated,” the U.S. President wrote. “If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be.”
Netanyahu’s seventh meeting with Trump came less than a week after Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s special envoy and son-in-law, travelled to Oman to reopen negotiations with Iran. Those talks ended on a relatively positive note, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi calling them a good start in what is likely to be a long, torturous negotiation over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Netanyahu, however, became increasingly concerned that Trump would strike a deal with Iran which excluded all the other files Israel is worried about, such as Tehran’s support for proxies in the Middle East and the ballistic missile programme the Iranians are swiftly rebuilding. Netanyahu’s last-minute visit to Washington was an attempt to get Trump back on side.
Whether it worked or not is difficult to say, because Trump’s entire negotiating position is, in a word, confusing. On some days, he strikes an optimistic tone and says that diplomacy with Iran is his first choice; on others, he reminds everybody what happened during the last round of negotiations in June, when he pulled the plug. Israel then conducted a 12-day air war that killed a significant portion of Tehran’s military leadership. Trump’s message in the last few days is unambiguous: if Iran doesn’t give me what I want, more American bombs will drop. Indeed, even as the Trump administration presses diplomacy, a second US aircraft carrier is preparing to depart for the Persian Gulf.
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