I’d love to give Iran a chance, Trump says at dinner with Israeli PM
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran has requested negotiations with Washington and expressed his willingness to lift sanctions “at the right time.”
US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran has requested negotiations with Washington and expressed his willingness to lift sanctions “at the right time.”
“I would love to be able to take those sanctions off and give them a chance,” Trump said during a White House dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “They want to meet and make peace. We have scheduled Iran talks. They want to talk.”
US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff told reporters that nuclear negotiations between the two countries are expected to take place “in the next week or so,” in what would mark the first official diplomatic engagement between Washington and Tehran since the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei on Tuesday denied that Iran had requested a meeting with the American side."No meeting request has been made to the American side from our end."
Trump, speaking to reporters before the dinner, said Iran had “taken a big drubbing” from joint US-Israeli strikes but now appeared ready for dialogue. “I hope the war with Iran is over,” he added.
When asked for a specific date for the talks, Trump declined to provide details. “I’d rather not say, but you’ll be reading about it tomorrow or seeing it tomorrow,” he said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said this week that he believes Iran can resolve its differences with the United States through dialogue, but trust would be an issue after US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
"I am of the belief that we could very much easily resolve our differences and conflicts with the United States through dialogue and talks," Pezeshkian told conservative US podcaster Tucker Carlson in an interview released on Monday.
The US president also spoke warmly about the Iranian potential. “They have the oil power. They have great people, smart people, energetic people—amazing,” he said.
“I would like to see Iran build itself in a peaceful manner. They were the bully of the Middle East and now they are not any more.”
During the dinner, Netanyahu said that Iran’s influence in Syria had waned and described the Islamic Republic as "out of the picture" there, suggesting that this shift could open the door for a new peace process between Israel and Syria. He also told Trump he intended to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump said that Netanyahu had asked for US sanctions on Syria to be lifted—a request that Trump said was granted. “We took the sanctions off because we want to give them a chance,” he said, adding that similar relief could be considered for Iran if progress is made.
Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a US-based Iran analyst, said that the dinner remarks exposed a gap between American and Israeli positions on Iran.
“Netanyahu has never accepted any form of negotiation with Iran and has consistently advocated for the destruction of its nuclear program,” Boroujerdi told Iran International. “His comparison of Iran’s nuclear and missile ambitions to ‘cancerous tumors’ shows he seeks perpetual control over Iran’s military activities.”
However, he said that Trump’s remarks reflect a more pragmatic view from the White House. “Trump is entering these talks from a position of strength,” he said. “This isn’t about appeasement—it’s about leverage.”
The dinner was Netanyahu’s first in-person meeting with Trump since the strikes on Iran.
