U.S. President Donald Trump held tense talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday that reflected their differing views on how to continue the war with Iran, a U.S. official told CNN.
This wasn’t the first conversation they’d had in recent days. The official said that when the two leaders spoke on Sunday, Trump indicated that he might launch new targeted strikes against Iran early this week — an operation that, as CNN previously reported, is expected to get a new name: “Operation Sledgehammer.”
But about 24 hours after the initial conversation, Trump announced he would halt an attack he said was planned for Tuesday at the request of Persian Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In the days since, Gulf states have been in close contact with the White House and Pakistani mediators to develop a framework within which further diplomatic talks could proceed, the U.S. official and a person familiar with the matter said.
“We’re in the home stretch of the Iran issue. We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters Wednesday morning of efforts to reach a deal.
“We’re either going to make a deal or we’re going to do something a little bit nasty,” he continued. “But hopefully that won’t happen.”
The ongoing negotiations have frustrated Israel’s prime minister, who has long advocated a more aggressive approach toward Tehran. Netanyahu argued that a delay would only benefit the Iranians, according to Trump officials and Israeli sources.
The U.S. official said Netanyahu expressed his frustration on Tuesday, telling Trump that he believed postponing the expected attack was a mistake and that the president should proceed as planned.
Axios first reported the tense phone situation.
An Israeli source said Netanyahu expressed doubts that the talks would lead to a deal, especially since Iran has so far refused to give up its uranium enrichment, a sticking point for the United States. An Israeli source familiar with the situation said that during the hour-long conversation, Netanyahu urged the resumption of military operations. Israeli officials said the divide was clear: Trump wanted to see if a deal could be reached, but Netanyahu was looking forward to other things.
Citing two unnamed senior Iranian sources, Reuters reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a directive not to ship the country’s near-weapons-grade uranium stockpile abroad. But a U.S. official said the U.S. had not communicated such a directive to the White House as of Thursday morning.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday that “statements about nuclear issues – such as uranium enrichment or enrichment levels – are just media speculation and have no basis in reality,” Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted him as saying. Baghaei also said “rumors” about a diplomatic breakthrough between Tehran and Washington are “not credible.”
Asked on Thursday whether Iran could keep its highly enriched uranium, Trump told reporters: “No, no, we got the highly enriched uranium. We’re going to get it.”
“We don’t need it; we don’t want it,” he added. “We might destroy it once we get it, but we’re not going to let them have it.”
Iran ‘reviews’ US proposal
Another Israeli source told CNN that after Tuesday’s call, Israel’s concerns extended to officials around Netanyahu. The source said top brass in the Israeli government have a strong desire to resume military action and are increasingly frustrated that Trump continues to allow what they say is Iran’s diplomatic stalling.
But sources familiar with the conversations said Netanyahu’s frustration with the U.S. approach — especially Trump’s threats but ultimately a pause button — was nothing new. U.S. officials have acknowledged in the past that the U.S. and Israel have different goals in the war.
Asked what he had said to the prime minister the night before, Trump suggested Wednesday that he was in the driver’s seat.
“He’ll do whatever I want him to do,” the US president said.
Trump is continuing to push for a diplomatic deal despite pressure from Netanyahu to return to the battlefield, claiming on Wednesday that relations with Iran were “at the border” and that a few more days of diplomacy were worth it if lives could be saved.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that Tehran and Washington continued to exchange information through Pakistan, Iran’s state-run Noor News reported.
“Based on Iran’s original 14-point text, we have exchanged information multiple times and we have received the U.S. side’s perspective and are currently reviewing it,” Baghayi said.
Pakistan has played a central role in seeking a diplomatic solution to the conflict, including hosting high-level face-to-face talks in April between U.S. Vice President Vance and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
“There are some good signs, but I don’t want to be overly optimistic,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Florida on Thursday before departing for Sweden and India.
“It would be great if we could get a good deal. I’m not here to tell you that’s definitely going to happen,” he added.
It’s unclear which key gaps, if any, between the two sides have closed. A regional source said Iran had not given up on its core demands and earlier this week issues surrounding its nuclear program and frozen assets remained unresolved.
Trump has repeatedly said military action remains an option.
“If we don’t get the right answers, things will move very quickly. We’re all ready,” he said Wednesday.
This story was updated Thursday with additional developments.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Sana Noor Haq contributed to this report.
For more CNN news and newsletters, create an account at CNN.com
