KEY POINTS
- Trump told Netanyahu not to strike Iran amid ongoing nuclear talks, calling it “inappropriate”
- Tehran and Washington have held five rounds of talks in recent weeks on a nuclear deal
- Iran may allow US inspectors if a deal is reached, says nuclear chief Eslami
- Iran insists uranium enrichment is “non-negotiable” despite Western pressure
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to launch a military strike against Iran, saying such action would be “inappropriate” amid talks between Washington and Tehran on a nuclear deal.
“Well, I’d like to be honest, yes I did,” Trump said when asked if he had told Netanyahu in a call last week not to take any action that could disrupt Washington’s talks with Tehran.
Pressed on what he told the Israeli premier, Trump replied: “I just said I don’t think it’s appropriate, we’re having very good discussions with them.”
He added: “I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution.
“I think they want to make a deal, and if we can make a deal, save a lot of lives.”
Tehran and Washington have in recent weeks held five rounds of talks focused on the issue — their highest-level contact since the US in 2018 withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal during Trump’s first term.
Iran may allow US inspectors
Iran said earlier Wednesday it may consider allowing US inspectors with the United Nations nuclear watchdog to inspect its facilities if a deal is reached with the United States.
Iran “will reconsider accepting American inspectors through the agency” if “an agreement is reached, and Iran’s demands are taken into account”, Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami told reporters.
“Countries that were hostile to us and behaved unprincipledly over the years — we have always tried not to accept inspectors from those countries,” Eslami said, referring to staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Israel has repeatedly threatened military action against Iran and US media reports last week said Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear sites despite the ongoing US-Iran talks.
Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first — and has also said that Israel, and not the United States — would take the lead in any such strikes.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has reinstated his “maximum pressure” policy on Tehran, including by imposing new sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Wednesday that “consultations are ongoing regarding the time and location of the next round of talks, and once finalised, they will be announced by Oman”.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, currently on an official visit to Oman, thanked the Gulf state for its mediation efforts between the long-time adversaries, which have had no formal diplomatic ties since 1979.
Iranian Foreign Minister and top negotiator Abbas Araghchi, who is accompanying Pezeshkian in Oman, said that “the date for the new round of negotiations will probably be clarified within the next few days”.
Non-negotiable
While welcoming the negotiations, Iranian officials have repeatedly declared uranium enrichment “non-negotiable”.
US officials, including Washington’s representative in the talks, Steve Witkoff, have also publicly identified it as a red line.
Eslami also said that the issue of enrichment “has not been raised at all” and “the enrichment percentage should not be raised politically”.
“The enrichment percentage depends on the type of use. When highly enriched uranium is produced, it does not necessarily mean military use,” he told reporters.
Baqaei meanwhile said: “The continuation of enrichment in Iran is an inseparable part of the country’s nuclear industry and a fundamental principle for the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“Any proposal or initiative that contradicts this principle or undermines this right is unacceptable.”
Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60% — the highest level of any non-nuclear weapons state. That rate is still below the 90% threshold required for a nuclear weapon, but far above the 3.67% limit set under the 2015 deal.
The European parties to the 2015 nuclear accord — France, Germany, and the United Kingdom — are weighing whether to trigger the agreement’s “snapback” mechanism, which would reinstate UN sanctions on Iran for non-compliance.
Tehran has repeatedly warned against activating the measure. – Agencies
