Netanyahu to Meet Trump, Says Iran Talks Must Include Missiles, Proxies
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday as U.S.-Iran negotiations advance amid growing tension, with Tehran resisting demands to reduce its ballistic missiles, proxy forces and nuclear program following talks in Oman that Trump called “very good.”
The prime minister’s office announced the meeting Saturday evening, saying Netanyahu believes any negotiations with Iran “must include limitations on ballistic missiles and a halt to support for the Iranian axis.”
The visit was brought forward at Netanyahu’s request and comes a day after U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser Jared Kushner held indirect negotiations with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Muscat – the first such talks since last summer’s Israel-Iran war.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on Friday, Trump said Iran appeared eager to reach a deal and acknowledged that another round of negotiations could happen soon.
“They want to make a deal,” Trump said. “They don’t want us to hit them.”
Tehran, however, has publicly rejected the core conditions that U.S. officials say must define any meaningful deal.
On Saturday, Araghchi rejected calls to limit Iran’s ballistic missile program, insisting the issue is not open to negotiation with outside powers.
“It’s a defensive question,” Araghchi said. “No outside country will take care of it.”
Araghchi also said Iran would not agree to a complete halt to uranium enrichment, although he said Tehran could agree to conditions that would satisfy “all parties,” adding that enriched uranium “would not leave Iran.”
The statements followed a pointed show of force earlier in the week.
On Thursday — on the eve of the Oman talks — Iran unveiled an underground “missile city” housing the Khorramshahr-4 ballistic missile, which state media said can strike Israel in minutes and carry a heavy payload capable of threatening U.S. bases and allied assets in the region.
IRGC-linked media presented the disclosure as part of a shift toward offensive doctrine, while regime-aligned media simultaneously published a multi-stage war plan that included missile barrages on U.S. forces, a coordinated proxy escalation by Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, and Yemen’s Houthis, cyberattacks, and threats to global energy transportation across the Strait of Hormuz.
The missile demonstration took place alongside enhanced US military signaling.
On Saturday morning, US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump adviser Jared Kushner visited the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea at the invitation of US Central Command Commander Admiral Brad Cooper.
Witkoff later confirmed the visit in an article on »
He added that they observed live flight operations and spoke with the pilot who “shot down an Iranian drone that was approaching the aircraft carrier without clear intent” last week.
Economic pressure has also intensified.
The White House on Friday announced expanded sanctions targeting countries with commercial ties to Iran, building on the Trump administration’s broader pressure campaign against the regime.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Iran’s leaders are “extracting money from the country like crazy,” declaring that “the rats are leaving the ship” as sanctions accelerate economic collapse.
“We have seen Iranian leaders move money out of the country like crazy,” Bessent told lawmakers. “It’s a good sign that they know the end may be near.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has insisted that any agreement must address Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal, the regional proxy network and internal repression – conditions that Tehran has rejected while demanding that negotiations remain narrowly limited to nuclear issues.
Israeli officials remain skeptical that the negotiations will produce a breakthrough, with Netanyahu warning that any Iranian attack on Israel would trigger a response “like nothing we have ever seen.”
The convergence of renewed diplomacy, military pressure, economic sanctions and missile brinkmanship now sets the stage for Wednesday’s Oval Office meeting – as Washington and Jerusalem evaluate whether Iran’s push for a deal reflects genuine compromise or an attempt to buy time while refusing to rein in its nuclear program, proxy forces and expansion of its missile capabilities.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
