US president Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a 40-minute phone call on Monday evening, soon after Iran said it would respond to Washington’s latest proposal for a nuclear deal. Reports suggest that both leaders discussed the Iranian nuclear deal.
"Trump informed Netanyahu that the US has offered a reasonable proposal to Iran and is likely to receive its response in the coming days,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
It said "Trump was planning to hold another round of nuclear talks with Iran” on fair grounds. Though the specifics about what two leaders discussed were not shared by Israel. Trump later told reporters in the white house that his conversation with Netanyahu went “very well” and covered a variety of issues, including the ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran.
At the White House, Trump told reporters that the US "is trying to make a deal [with Iran] so that there’s no destruction and death,” adding that the Iranians are “tough negotiators.” Asked what’s blocking a deal, Trump said, “They’re just asking for things that you can’t do,” pointing to Tehran’s insistence on retaining its uranium-enrichment capability— something Trump said he won’t permit, even though the latest US proposal reportedly allows limited, low-level enrichment inside Iran for a time. “They don’t want to give up what they have to give up. You know what that is: They seek enrichment.”
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Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei later said the “next round of Iran–US indirect negotiations was being planned for next Sunday in Muscat,” according to a statement cited by reporters.
"Netanyahu has called for dismantlement of Iran’s enrichment and nuclear facilities, while assuring the White house that Israel will not launch any attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, unless Trump signals ongoing negotiations with Iran failed.”
Trump and his administration, especially JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio, have hinted that the US would pursue the diplomatic solution to the nuclear program rather than consider war with Iran. Dropping a bombshell report on Monday, Iran said it had extracted secret "treasure trove" documents related to Israel’s nuclear research facilities in a highly classified operation.
On Tuesday, the IAEA chief said that documents with Iran are linked to Israel’s nuclear research sites, while indirectly denying that Israel possesses nuclear weapons. Instead, it accused Iran of conducting secretive nuclear tests a few decades ago.
Iran has threatened to release thousands of secret documents, aimed at exposing what they call Israel’s hypocritical behaviour for hiding its nuclear weapons programme.
Furthermore, the IAEA has also told Israel that any attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites would potentially cause Tehran to pursue nuclear weapons or abandon the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Grossi said that such a strike by Israel “might have an amalgamating effect, which would make a determination on the part of Iran to go to a nuclear weapon or to abandon the treaty on non-proliferation. I’m telling you this because they have told me.”
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