On the eve of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump tells an Israeli reporter that the Israeli premier “wants a deal” with Iran, and says nuclear talks this time show promise.
“Last time they didn’t believe I would do it,” Trump tells Barak Ravid, a reporter with both Israel’s Channel 12 and the Axios news site, about the American strikes in June 2025 on Iran’s nuclear sites just days after the collapse of diplomatic negotiations.
“They overplayed their hand,” says Trump. This time around, the negotiations are “very different,” he adds. “We can make a great deal with Iran.”
The US president avers that Netanyahu is not against the current US-Iran talks, which included a high-level meeting over the weekend in Oman: “He also wants a deal. He wants a good deal.”
Iran, Trump says, also “wants to make a deal very badly.”
But Trump tells Ravid that the US isn’t afraid to play tough: “Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time.”
The US president says that “we have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going,” adding that he is “thinking” of sending another aircraft carrier strike group, after boosting the US military presence in the region in recent weeks.
Times of Israel