Trump: Iran negotiating as 'they don’t want us to hit them'

Ahead of US-Iran talks, Netanyahu said to tout ‘buildup of conditions’ for regime’s collapse

PM convenes security cabinet in Jerusalem, as Israel reportedly believes talks will fail; Witkoff, Kushner to meet Araghchi in Oman as 6 Muslim nations push for non-aggression pact

With US-Iran tensions ratcheting up a day ahead of scheduled talks in Oman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of the security cabinet in Jerusalem on Thursday evening.

The high-level meeting had originally been set to take place on Sunday, but Netanyahu decided on Wednesday to move the gathering up to Thursday. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and senior US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are set to meet for nuclear talks in Muscat on Friday, with both Tehran and Washington continuing their saber-rattling in recent days.

Netanyahu’s office did not issue any statement or comments on the meeting. Channel 12 news reported that it did not focus primarily on Iran, instead including briefings on other issues such as the financial status of the Palestinian Authority.

According to the network, however, Netanyahu did discuss Iran earlier in the day, at a session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, where he reportedly said that “there is a buildup of conditions toward a critical mass that could bring about the downfall of the Iranian regime,” though he reportedly cautioned that he was unsure whether it would be sufficient to cause that outcome.

Speaking to the closed-door meeting of the committee on Thursday afternoon, Netanyahu said that if Iran attacks Israel, “it will face a powerful response,” according to the Knesset Spokesman’s Office.

Channel 12 said Netanyahu told the lawmakers that coordination with the United States is “as high and as close as possible,” while acknowledging uncertainty over what decisions US President Donald Trump will ultimately make.

Speaking Thursday at a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, Trump said that Iran was currently negotiating with the US because “they don’t want us to hit them.”

“We have a big fleet going over to Iran,” he reiterated, after making similar comments repeatedly throughout this week.

The US and Iran have agreed to hold talks in Oman on Friday, officials for both sides said, even as they remain at odds over Washington’s insistence that negotiations must include Tehran’s missile arsenal and Iran’s vow to discuss only its nuclear program.

Iran will engage in the talks “with authority and with the aim of reaching a fair, mutually acceptable and dignified understanding on the nuclear issue,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said.

“We hope the American side will also participate in this process with responsibility, realism and seriousness,” Baghaei added, noting that Araghchi was on his way to Oman.

The Kan public broadcaster reported, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the matter, that Israel believes Friday’s round of talks is doomed to failure, as the negotiation is merely a feeler regarding the gaps between the sides, which Jerusalem assesses are substantial.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that the US is waiting to “see what comes of those” talks. “The president is standing by for an update from Witkoff and Kushner,” she added.

“Zero nuclear capability is something [Trump] been very explicit about, and he wants to see if a deal can be struck,” Leavitt said. “While these negotiations are taking place, I would remind the Iranian regime that the president has many options at his disposal — aside from diplomacy — as the commander in chief of the most powerful military in the history of the world.”

Meanwhile, two Middle Eastern diplomats told The Times of Israel on Thursday that several Muslim countries are pushing for the US and Iran to sign a non-aggression pact when they meet in Oman.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan were slated to take part in the talks, which the US had originally planned to hold in Turkey. As part of their preparations for those talks, the six countries put together a framework for a potential agreement, which would include a non-aggression pact under which the two sides would agree not to target one another, the two diplomats said.

The pact would also cover allies and proxies of the US and Iran, one of the diplomats said, while acknowledging that binding Israel to such an agreement would be difficult. The framework proposed by the Muslim countries would also cover the nuclear, ballistic missile and proxy groups, the two diplomats said.

But Iran on Wednesday pushed back on holding the talks in Turkey with other countries besides the US, and Washington agreed to move the negotiations to Oman, where only representatives from the two main countries will attend.

As a result, it was unclear whether the US and Iran were set to discuss the framework proposed by the six Muslim countries. However, the two diplomats said they were still pushing for their proposal to be discussed and were in touch with both countries about the framework.

Kushner and Witkoff were in Doha Thursday evening discussing the talks with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani, ahead of their meeting Friday with Araghchi.

Citing a senior American official involved in preparations, Channel 12 reported that the discussions in Oman on Friday were expected to focus primarily on Iran’s nuclear program, including Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium and the future of uranium enrichment.

Washington is demanding that Iran hand over its enriched uranium – particularly material enriched to 60 percent, just short of the 90% level needed for a nuclear weapon – and signal readiness to halt further enrichment, the report said.

Kushner was not present in previous rounds of talks, and the network said his participation is seen as a signal of the White House’s seriousness and of Washington’s intention to have senior decision-makers at the table.

Iran was said to be entering the talks in a weakened position following June’s 12-day war and amid a continued American military buildup in the region, but Channel 12 said that gaps between the sides remained wide, and expectations for a breakthrough were low.

The report added that sensitive deliberations on Iran have been taking place in smaller Israeli security forums, and that officials remain concerned Washington could ultimately drop demands to address Iran’s ballistic missile program during negotiations.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that discussions with Iran need to cover its missile and nuclear programs, its support for terror groups in the region and its treatment of its population.

Iran has only shown willingness to discuss its nuclear program, albeit not on the terms demanded by the US, which wants the Islamic Republic to agree not to enrich uranium on its own territory and export all of its already enriched stockpiles out of the country, leading many to believe that the chance of success in the talks is low.

“At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage, and has always been prepared to engage with Iran,” Rubio said. “For talks to actually lead to something meaningful, they will have to include certain things, and that includes the range of their ballistic missiles.”

“That includes their sponsorship of terrorist organizations across the region. That includes the nuclear program. And that includes the treatment of their own people,” he added.