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US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to intensify the “maximum pressure policy” in order to force Iran to give up its nuclear program, including clamping down on the sale of Tehran’s oil to China, according to a Saturday report citing two US officials.
At the two leaders’ meeting at the White House earlier this week, “We agreed that we will go full force with maximum pressure against Iran, for example, regarding Iranian oil sales to China,” a senior American official told Axios.
According to the report, some 80 percent of Iran’s oil exports go to China, leading the US and Israel to believe that clamping down on trade between the two countries would “significantly” increase economic pressure on Tehran.
Trump, under authority by an executive order he signed last week, could impose 25% tariffs on China for trading with Iran.
The pressure campaign will be implemented alongside the ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran, the report said.
Oman is set to mediate another round of talks next week, though they will be held this time in Geneva, the Swiss foreign ministry announced Wednesday. The ministry did not give an exact date for the talks.
The US believes that Iran will present its answer to Washington’s proposal during next week’s meeting, the report said, though a US official told Axios that there is “zero chance” of an agreement.
“We are sober and realistic about the Iranians. The ball is in their court. If it is not a real deal, we will not take it,” a second US official said.
The report also quoted Wednesday’s meeting at the White House between Trump and Netanyahu, with the prime minister expressing skepticism that Tehran would honor an agreement with the US, even if one is reached.
It’s “impossible” to do a deal with Iran, Netanyahu reportedly said, arguing that even if Tehran signs a deal, they will not abide by it.
“We’ll see if it’s possible. Let’s give it a shot,” Trump is said to have replied.
The report added that Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told the US president that the Iranians are “saying all the right things” in the talks, and that they “will continue with the negotiations and take a tough line.”
If Iran agrees to what the US is asking, then the two envoys will give Trump the option “so that he can decide if he wants to do it,” a US official said, according to the report.
Axios also pointed to a recent report by an Iranian journalist, which claimed that Witkoff’s proposal included that Iran suspend its enrichment for “three to five years,” after which, Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium to “very low levels.”
The reported proposal also stipulated the “removal of 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium” that Iran currently holds, and its relocation to a third country. Tehran rejected the proposal, according to the Iranian report.
Axios noted that a US official denied that Washington ever proposed such an offer.
Rubio: Trump would meet Khamenei
Also on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump would meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to solve disputes between the two countries, in an interview with Bloomberg while in Munich attending the city’s global security conference.
“I’m pretty confident in saying that if the ayatollah said tomorrow he wanted to meet with President Trump, the President would meet him, not because he agrees with the ayatollah but because he thinks that’s the way you solve problems in the world, and he doesn’t view meeting someone as a concession,” Rubio said.
The top diplomat has said in the past that Trump is willing to meet with any world leader to resolve disputes.
“Number one is I think it’s pretty clear that Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, that that poses a threat not just to the United States, to Europe, to world security, and to the region. There’s no doubt about it,” he said when asked if Washington is running out of patience with Tehran given that Trump is building up forces and sending another aircraft carrier to the region.
“The second is we obviously want to have forces in the region because Iran has shown the willingness and the capability to lash out and strike out at the United States presence in the region,” Rubio said.
“We have bases because of our alliances in the region, and Iran has shown in the past that they are willing to attack us and/or threaten our bases. So we have to have sufficient firepower in the region to ensure that they don’t make a mistake and come after us and trigger something larger,” he added, stressing that Trump prefers to resolve the dispute with a deal.
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