President Donald Trump revealed Monday in a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. would be engaging in high-level talks with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
The president added that a large meeting with “very high-level” officials from the U.S. and Iran is set to take place Saturday in the wake of his repeated warnings to the country that it would face consequences if it did not reach a nuclear deal. Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had previously ruled out talks with the U.S. should it continue its “maximum pressure” stance.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump said during the conference.
With its current stockpiles, Iran can make a nuclear weapon with 60% enriched uranium in just one week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a November 2024 bulletin. Trump pulled out of the Obama-era nuclear deal in 2018, which was often criticized for being too soft on Iran as it lacked a perpetual ban on the country’s nuclearization once sunset provisions triggered.
Iran backs the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who target U.S. naval vessels and international shipping routes with repeated strikes. The rebels have so far attacked U.S. naval vessels 174 times and commercial vessels 145 times since 2023, according to the White House.
Iran also backs numerous Shi’ite Muslim militias in Iraq, which routinely launched attacks on U.S. bases and Israeli targets.
Trump reportedly gave Iran a 2-month deadline to negotiate a nuclear deal in a letter sent to the Ayatollah March 12, according to Axios. Khamenei called the letter a “deception” that was only meant to give the impression that Iran was not open to cooperation.
The State Department did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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