President Donald Trump said he discussed the ongoing Iran nuclear negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Monday, indicating he was worried Tehran was asking for too much in negotiations.
“They are good negotiators, but they’re tough. Sometimes they can be too tough, that’s the problem,” Trump said at an event at the White House. “So we’re trying to make a deal so that there’s no destruction and death.”
Trump has vowed to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons but Netanyahu has been skeptical of diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Trump in May said he told Netanyahu that a military strike against Iran would be “inappropriate to do right now” because it could jeopardize negotiations he said were close to an agreement. The New York Times had reported that Israel was weighing potential strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, a move officials in Tehran have warned could trigger a response and derail the talks.
Tensions are already high between Israel and Iran since the start of the war in Gaza and amid Israeli strikes on Iran-backed groups.
A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry during a press conference earlier Monday said Tehran would send a counteroffer in the “coming days” via Oman in response to a US proposal on its nuclear program.
The war in Gaza is also another flashpoint that is high on the agenda, following Israel’s move to intensify military operations against Hamas. Israel has been at war with Hamas since Oct. 7, 2023, when the group — declared a terrorist organization by the US and European Union — launched a surprise attack that killed about 1,200 people and resulted in 250 hostages being taken. More than 50 of those captives remain in Gaza, and Israel believes about 20 are alive.
Trump said the situation in Gaza was among the discussion points on the call.
“We discussed a lot of things, and it went very well, very smooth,” Trump said.
Israel’s response aimed at rooting out Hamas from Gaza has destroyed much of the territory and sparked a humanitarian crisis. Israel controls limited deliveries of aid assistance to Gaza’s population, which numbers about 2 million, and has blamed Hamas for diverting needed aid under a prior distribution system.
The war has also sparked a surge in antisemitic violence in the US, including an attack with Molotov cocktails and a flamethrower on peaceful demonstrators in Colorado who were marching in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Trump’s administration has seized on worries about antisemitism, including the wave of campus protests over the war, pressuring universities to overhaul their policies. And Trump last week unveiled a new travel ban that, citing the terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, as justification for his administration’s hardline immigration policies and ramped-up deportations.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
