US President Donald Trump said he had a great conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Iran and trade, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Trump and Netanyahu, who are close allies, met in the Oval Office at the White House last night.
The Israeli prime minister is the first foreign leader whom the US president has received since he announced new tariffs on all imports last week - a measure that sent shockwaves through international trade and stock markets.
Netanyahu is in Washington for the second time since Trump returned to power in January.
In February The Israeli prime minister became the first foreign leader invited to the White House since the beginning of the president's second term, the Associated Press notes.
Netanyahu promised Trump to eliminate Israel's trade surplus with the United States, Agence France-Presse reported.
On the issue of Iran, the White House host announced that the United States is holding direct talks with this country, which is a sworn enemy of Israel, about its nuclear program.
"We are holding direct talks with Iran and they have started. They will continue on Saturday. We will have a very important meeting and we will see what can happen," said the US president. He indicated that the talks would be "almost at the highest level", but did not give details.
The Islamic Republic will be in "great danger" if these talks fail, Trump warned. He made it clear that "Iran cannot have nuclear weapons".
Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump and Netanyahu assured that they were working on a new ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip that would allow the release of the remaining hostages who were taken to the Palestinian territory in the attack by "Hamas" against Israel on October 7, 2023, reported Agence France-Presse.
Trump expressed a desire for the war in Gaza to stop and suggested that this would happen relatively soon, Reuters summarizes.
During the meeting between the US president and the Israeli prime minister in February, a ceasefire in the strip was in effect, the AP recalls.
After two months of a fragile truce, the Israeli army resumed its operation in Gaza on March 18.
Iran confirmed that there will be talks with the US on Saturday, but according to Tehran they will be indirect, reported Agence France-Presse.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed, quoted by Agence France-Presse, that there will be talks on Saturday. They will be "at a high level", but "they will be indirect", he specified, adding that the venue of the meeting will be in Oman.
"This is as much an opportunity as it is a test. The ball is in America's court," Araghchi wrote in "Ex".
The day before yesterday, the Iranian foreign minister said that direct talks with the US about his country's nuclear program "would make no sense".