U.S. President Donald Trump said he is open to meeting Iran’s supreme leader or president and that he thinks the two countries will strike a new deal on Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme.

However, Trump, who in 2018 pulled the U.S. out of a now moribund nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, repeated a threat of military action against Iran unless a new pact is swiftly reached to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.

Trump, in an April 22 interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran” following indirect U.S.-Iranian talks last week in which the side agreed to draw up a framework for a potential deal. A U.S. official said the discussions yielded “very good progress”.

Asked by Time whether he was open to meeting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, an anti-Western hardliner who has the last say on all major state policies, or reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, Trump replied: “Sure.”

Expert-level talks are set to resume on Saturday in Oman, which has acted as intermediary between the longtime adversaries, with a third round of high-level nuclear discussions planned for the same day.

Israel, a close U.S. ally and Iran’s major Middle East foe, has described the Islamic Republic’s escalating uranium enrichment programme – a potential pathway to nuclear bombs – as an “existential threat”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, saying partial measures will not suffice to ensure Israel’s security.

Asked in the interview if he was concerned Netanyahu might drag the United States into a war with Iran, Trump said: “No.”

However, when asked if the U.S. would join a war against Iran should Israel take action, he responded: “I may go in very willingly if we can’t get a deal. If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack.”

In March, Iran responded to a letter from Trump in which he urged it to negotiate a new deal by stating it would not engage in direct talks under maximum pressure and military threats but was open to indirect negotiations, as in the past.

Although the current talks have been indirect and mediated by Oman, U.S. and Iranian officials did speak face-to-face briefly following the first round on April 12.

The last known face-to-face negotiations between the two countries took place under former U.S. President Barack Obama during diplomacy that led to the 2015 nuclear accord.

Western powers accuse Iran of harbouring a clandestine agenda to develop nuclear weapons capability by enriching uranium to a high level of fissile purity, above what they say is justifiable for a civilian atomic energy programme.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is wholly peaceful. The 2015 deal curbed its uranium enrichment activity in exchange for relief from international sanctions, but Iran resumed and acclerated enrichment after the Trump walkout in 2018.

(Reuters)

The Palestinian leadership approved the creation of the position of vice president of Mahmoud Abbas, and possibly his successor, on Thursday, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.

A statement published by state news agency WAFA said 170 members of the Palestinian Central Council, the Palestinians’ highest decision-making body, voted in favour of the decision, while one member voted against it and another abstained, Reuters reported.

They have not immediately appointed someone to the role. According to the statement, Abbas has the right to assign tasks to the deputy, relieve him of his post, or accept his resignation.

Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but has for years resisted internal reforms, including the naming of a successor.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and has not governed Gaza since fighting a civil war with Hamas in 2007.

Iran will have to stop enriching uranium under any deal with the United States and could only import what is needed for a civilian nuclear program, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said ahead of talks between Tehran and Washington on Saturday, Reuters reported.

However, Iran has already made clear that its right to enrich uranium is not negotiable. When asked about Rubio’s comments, a senior Iranian official, close to Iran’s negotiating team, again said on Wednesday “zero enrichment is unacceptable.”

The U.S. is seeking to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb and President Donald Trump has imposed a “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and threatened to use military force if Iran does not end its nuclear program.

Iran has denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon and says its nuclear program is peaceful. U.S. and Iranian officials will meet in Oman on Saturday for a third round of talks on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.

“There’s a pathway to a civil, peaceful nuclear program if they want one,” Rubio told the “Honestly with Bari Weiss” podcast on Tuesday.

“But if they insist on enriching, then they will be the only country in the world that doesn’t have a ‘weapons program,’ … but is enriching. And so I think that’s problematic,” he said.

U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff last week said Iran does not need to enrich past 3.67% – a remark that raised questions as to whether Washington still wanted Tehran to dismantle its enrichment program, read the report.

Witkoff then said a day later that Iran must “stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment.”

Rubio said on Tuesday that Witkoff was initially talking about “the level of enriched material that they would be allowed to import from outside, like multiple countries around the world do for their peaceful civil nuclear programs.”

“If Iran wants a civil nuclear program, they can have one just like many other countries in the world have one, and that is they import enriched material,” he said.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog – the International Atomic Energy Agency – has said that Iran is “dramatically” accelerating enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% weapons-grade level.

Western countries say there is no need to enrich uranium to such a high level for civilian uses and that no other country has done so without producing nuclear bombs.