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The Trump administration has sent mixed messages about its goal for the negotiations.
By Lara Jakes
Lara Jakes has reported on U.S. diplomatic talks with Iran for more than a decade.
April 19, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
As Iran and the United States on Saturday meet again for diplomatic talks over Tehran’s nuclear activities, few will be watching the outcome as closely as Israel.
Israel has long relied on President Trump to take a hard line against Iran, which has called for the destruction of the Jewish state. And during his first term in office, he did, ordering the killing of a top Iranian security official, devastating Tehran’s economy with American sanctions and abandoning an international accord limiting Iran’s nuclear program.
But now, as Mr. Trump resists being pulled into a new war in the Middle East, he is trying a more measured approach.
While the specter of military action remains — “If we have to do something very harsh, we’ll do it,” Mr. Trump said this past week — he has pushed ahead with negotiations and is said to have asked Israel to hold off from attacking Iran’s nuclear sites.
Mr. Trump’s chief envoy to the talks, Steve Witkoff, has also sent mixed signals over what the United States wants. Over the past week, he has moved from suggesting Iran could have a limited nuclear program to saying Iran needed to fully dismantle it.
And on Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that any deal must keep Iran from ever possessing a nuclear weapon. “It has to be something that not just prevents Iran from having a nuclear weapon now, but in the future as well,” he told reporters on a trip to Paris.
