Trump says US ‘having direct talks’ with Iran over nuclear deal

Donald Trump has announced that the US is to hold direct talks with Iran in a bid to prevent the country from obtaining an atomic bomb, while also warning Tehran of dire consequences if they fail.

Sitting beside Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office, Trump indicated that discussions would start this coming weekend, though he also implied communications had already begun.

He said the talks were happening in an effort to avoid what he called “the obvious” – an apparent reference to US or Israeli military strikes against the regime’s nuclear facilities.

“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,” he told reporters.

“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, or, frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with, if they can avoid it.

“So we’re going to see if we can avoid it. But it’s getting to be very dangerous territory. And hopefully those talks will be successful. And I think it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful.”

He gave no details of where the talks would take place or which officials would be involved. When questioned by journalists, Trump issued a thinly veiled threat if the talks failed, saying Iran would be in “great danger”.

“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran … Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it – because they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

“It’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Right now we have countries that have nuclear power that shouldn’t have it. But I’m sure we’ll be able to negotiate out of that too as part of this later on down the line.

“And if the talks aren’t successful I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran.”

During his presidency, Trump pulled out of a deal signed by Barack Obama known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. That deal offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for limitations on its uranium enrichment activities – resorting instead to a policy of “maximum pressure” that tightened economic embargoes.

Critics say Iran nevertheless accelerated its nuclear program and is now closer to building a bomb than ever before. Attempts by Joe Biden at reviving the deal negotiated by Obama faltered.

Netanyahu, who views Iran as an existential threat to Israel, actively undermined Obama’s agreement and has long railed against any deal that would allow the country’s theocratic rulers to maintain a program that could converted to nuclear weaponry.

Iran, for its part, has consistently denied any intent to build a bomb and said its program is meant for purely civilian purposes.

Iran and the US have had no direct diplomatic relations since 1980, when ties were severed after revolutionaries stormed the American embassy in Tehran and held 53 diplomats hostage for 444 days.