Trump says Direct Talks with Iran Are Underway

Trump: “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing.”

By David Isaac, JNS

U.S. President Donald Trump said that direct talks with Iran were taking place in a meeting with the press in the Oval Office on Monday. “Direct talks with Iran … they’ve started,” he said.

“There’s a major meeting going on between us and Iran. That will take place on Saturday, and it will be top level,” Trump said.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he stressed. “If it can be done diplomatically in a full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing.”

“And I think everybody agrees that putting a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious, and the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with,” Trump said, referring to a military option.

“Iran would be in great danger,” he added.

“Hopefully, those talks will be successful. And I think would be in Iran’s best interest if they are successful, we hope that’s going to happen, and we had just a lot of good talks on a lot of things,” the president added.

Trump’s pronouncement put the lie to recent Iranian statements, setting a high bar to direct talks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that Iran would only return to discussions with the United States if all American sanctions against Iran were lifted.

“In principle, direct negotiations with a party that continuously threatens violence, violates the U.N. Charter, and whose various officials issue contradictory statements would be meaningless,” said Araghchi.

Pointing the finger at the aggressor

While Trump made clear his preference for a diplomatic solution, Washington is readying for the possibility of military action.

Last month, the United States sent multiple B-2 bombers to a military base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

With a range of 6,900 miles, the B-2 is the only stealth aircraft that can carry the GBU-57, a 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bomb known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

It’s an unusual deployment for the B-2. While Diego Garcia hosts Air Force bombers on a fairly regular basis, B-2s haven’t spent significant time there since 2020. Last August marked the first time in four years that a B-2 even touched down there when a bomber made a quick ‘hot pit’ stop with its engines running,” reported Air & Space Forces Magazine on March 27.

On March 17, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that any future attacks from the Yemen-based Houthis, who have targeted U.S. Naval vessels hundreds of times and wreaked havoc with global shipping channels, would be treated as a direct aggression from Iran itself.

Iran was behind the Houthis’ attacks, he said.

“Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

He dismissed Iran’s claims that it had lost control of the Houthis.

“Iran has played ‘the innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control,” he said. “They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘intelligence.’”

Send Passover Packages to Needy Israeli Soldiers - Bring Them Joy!

We are honored to thank the young men and women of the IDF who risk their lives every day to protect the citizens of Israel. Soldiers have been in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria for extended periods - many are hoping to come home for Passover.

Join us in sending Passover food packages (and personal notes) to Israeli soldiers and their families.

Many soldiers spend the Passover holiday with needy families back home. The soldiers greatly appreciate your love and concern. Bring them Passover joy!

CLICK HERE TO SEND YOUR PACKAGE AND NOTE TO ISRAELI SOLDIERS!