President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. is holding "very high-level" negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program, calling the talks "in Iran's best interests."
Trump has repeatedly threatened to pursue military action with Tehran if a deal cannot be made, and Iran had previously ruled out having direct negotiations with Washington but held the door open to indirect talks.
He said that in the interim, Iran has agreed to speak directly.
"We're having direct talks with Iran, and they've started. It'll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we'll see what can happen. And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with," the president told reporters as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
"Now we're dealing with them directly. And maybe a deal is going to be made, that'd be great, it'll be really great for Iran," he added.
Warnings by Trump of military action against Iran had jangled already tense nerves across the Middle East after open warfare in Gaza and Lebanon, military strikes on Yemen, a change of leadership in Syria and Israeli-Iranian exchanges of fire.
Trump has said he would prefer a deal over Iran's nuclear program to a military confrontation and he said on March 7 he had written to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to suggest talks. Iranian officials said at the time that Tehran would not be bullied into negotiations.
During his 2017-2021 term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran's sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief. Trump also reimposed sweeping U.S. sanctions.
Since then, Iran has far surpassed that deal's limits on uranium enrichment.
Western powers accuse Iran of having a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy program.
Tehran says its nuclear program is wholly for civilian energy purposes.
Like U.S. presidents before him, Trump has said that Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.
He 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.
The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for details.
