Direct Negotiations

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his second visit to the US after making a visit to Hungary. And one major announcement US President Donald Trump made concerned the Iranian nuclear program as we see in a report from The Epoch Times:

President Donald Trump said on April 7 that the United States will be holding direct high-level talks with Iran.

The talks will be held on April 12, the president said during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Trump once again mentioned that both the US and Israel would prefer a deal to actually taking out the nuclear ability through a military attack:

“I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious,” Trump said in an apparent reference to possible military action against Iran.

“And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with or, frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it,” he said. “So we’re going to see if we can avoid it.”

“Maybe a deal’s going to be made.”

No details about where these talks would happen, but according to a report from i24news.tv they will be on Saturday:

Trump told reporters that Saturday's talks with Iran would be at a very high level and he held out the possibility that a deal could be reached.

"We have a very big meeting on Saturday and we're dealing with them directly," Trump said.

"I think if the talks aren't successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger. And I hate to say it, great danger because they can't have a nuclear weapon."

Going back top the Epoch Times report, Trump did add these details:

Trump did not say where the “very big meeting” will be held and who might be at the negotiating table. He said that talks with Iran will be “at very senior levels,” though he did not name anyone specific.

He then again, that Iran would be advised to avoid a deal:

The U.S. president said that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. He warned that “it will be a very bad day for Iran” if they don’t agree to a deal.

Iran for its part appears to already be rejecting such talks:

Iran has previously rejected direct talks with the United States, saying they would be “meaningless.”

“If you want negotiations, then what is the point of threatening?” said the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on April 6.

After Trump sent Iran a letter last month requesting direct talks, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on March 30 said: “Although the possibility of direct negotiations between the two sides has been rejected in this response, it has been emphasized that the path for indirect negotiations remains open.”

Trump Has Been Hard On Iran

President Trump is known for treating Iran with a firm hand in the past:

The Trump administration has been tough on Iran. This has consisted of re-designating the Iran-backed Houthis as a terrorist organization and resuming the “maximum pressure” campaign launched during the president’s first term. The United States has implemented multiple rounds of sanctions on Tehran.

And in his first presidency, Trump hit them hard:

In 2018, during his first term, Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reimposed sanctions lifted under it in addition to enacting fresh sanctions on the regime. Critics of the accord said that it did not stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons and that it did not address Iran’s support for terrorism and other malign activities.

Although Iran sounds like they are willing to talk, they are notorious for endless indirect negotiations. With indirect talks, they can slow things down and manipulate the talks by saying the other side misinterpreted this or that or simply make things up. That’s why Trump said the talks would be direct because he knows he is putting Iran in a box. And the other way he is boxing them in is the choices he’s giving them. In both instances Iran gives up their nuclear ambitions, something they won’t do. If they don’t publicly dismantle their nuclear program in a way that it can be verified then the US and more likely with the help of Israel will destroy it militarily. The Iranians say they won’t even entertain direct talks without certain conditions as we see in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Tehran would want to see concrete gestures from the United States before any face-to-face talks between Iranian and US officials, Iranian and regional sources said.

“The Iranians told us that direct talks are possible, but there has to be a goodwill gesture. Lift some sanctions or unfreeze some money,” a regional diplomat said.

Russia backs either direct or indirect talks between Iran and the US as a chance to de-escalate tensions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding: “We know that certain contacts, direct and indirect, are planned in Oman.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu also weighed on the talks as we see in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

Following his meeting with US President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Iran “must not have nuclear weapons,” adding that this could be achieved by two routes: diplomatically or militarily.

He added that the deal would only be acceptable if it were similar to the one with Libya: “We go in, blow up the facilities, and dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision and execution. That’s the ideal scenario.”

“The second option, which we don’t want, is that they’ll simply drag out the negotiations, and in that case, the military option becomes the only choice.”

I do think the military option will be the only one used mainly because of Bible prophecy about Israel attacking the south of modern day Iran as seen in Jeremiah 49:34-39. But this might happen after talks break down after a month of negotiations, which appears to be the projected timeframe. Regardless of how we get there, Israel will be part of taking out Iran’s nuclear program