OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:36 PM – Monday, April 7, 2025
In order to avoid “the obvious” military option, President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that his administration would hold direct nuclear negotiations with Iran later this week — following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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“We’re having direct talks with Iran,” Trump said in the Oval Office while hosting Netanyahu, who was seen leaving the White House with a paperback copy of Trump’s 1987 book “The Art of the Deal.”
“On Saturday we have a very big meeting … doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious.”
After tightening sanctions on Tehran and threatening U.S. strikes, Trump stated that the Saturday meeting would be held at “almost the highest level,” but he did not specify who would be attending or where it would take place.
The Trump administration is “dealing with them directly, and maybe a deal’s going to be made — that would be great. It would be really great for Iran, I can tell you that,” he added.
“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran,” Trump continued, “I think Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say, in great danger, because they can’t have a nuclear weapon.”
“You know, it’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That’s all there is…. And if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran.”
After the Biden administration concluded what the former Democrat president referred to as his “maximum pressure” campaign, rejecting bipartisan calls for imposing penalties on Iran’s oil exports, Trump issued an order for the strict implementation of economic sanctions against Iran.
Trump argued at the time that if Iranian agents or officials of any kind were to ever assassinate him, he had already given orders to have the country “obliterated.” This also follows after Trump’s 2024 campaign and FBI Director Kash Patel had been targeted in Iranian cyber attacks — which was confirmed by Biden’s FBI.
The GOP president has already expressed that he holds Iran accountable for its proxies, which include Yemen’s Houthis, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and Gaza’s Hamas — all Islamist terrorist groups.
After directing airstrikes against Houthi fighters in Yemen, who are backed by Tehran and have opened fire on foreign shipping in the Red Sea, the U.S. leader resorted to more “saber-rattling,” which means the display or threat of military force — last month.
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire,” Trump wrote on social media.
In retaliation for the U.S. death of Gen. Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, Iran purportedly attempted to assassinate Trump and several other leaders from his first administration. Iranian officials had promised retribution for what they described as “the unlawful assassination” of Soleimani (also known as Suleimani) outside of Baghdad International Airport (BIAP).
During his first term, Trump also denounced the Iran nuclear deal signed by former Democrat President Barack Obama, claiming it did not go far enough in stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, during the Monday Netanyahu meeting, Trump reaffirmed his ambitions for the U.S. to occupy and rebuild the Gaza Strip — once the around 2 million Palestinians living there could be relocated to other nations temporarily.
“If you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries — and you have plenty of countries that will do that, and you really have a freedom zone. You call it the freedom zone,” Trump said.
“I don’t understand why Israel ever gave it up. Israel owned it … They took oceanfront property and they gave it to people for peace. How did that work out? Not good,” he continued.
“Having a peace force like the U.S. there, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip, would be a good thing.”
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