Saudi Arabia’s defense minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: Take US President Donald Trump’s offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement seriously, because it presents a way to avoid the risk of war with Israel.
Alarmed at the prospect of further instability in the region, Saudi Arabia’s 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son Prince Khalid bin Salman with the warning destined for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to two Gulf sources close to government circles and two Iranian officials.
Present at the closed-door meeting in Tehran, which took place on April 17 in the presidential compound, were Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, armed forces Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, the sources said.
Prince Khalid, who was Saudi ambassador to Washington during Trump’s first term, warned Iranian officials that the US leader has little patience for drawn-out negotiations, according to the four sources.
Trump had unexpectedly announced just over a week earlier, in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that direct talks were taking place with Tehran, aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.
While the media covered the 37-year-old prince’s visit, the content of King Salman’s covert message has not been previously clarified.
In Tehran, Prince Khalid told the group of senior Iranian officials that Trump’s team would want to reach a deal quickly, and the window for diplomacy would close fast, according to the four sources.
The Saudi minister said it would be better to reach a deal with the US than face the possibility of an Israeli attack if the talks broke down, according to the two Gulf sources.
He argued that the region, riven by the war sparked by the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, could not withstand a further escalation in tensions, according to the two Gulf sources and one senior foreign diplomat familiar with the discussions.
On Thursday, it was reported that during Trump’s trip to the Gulf earlier this month, the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates told the American leader they oppose a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program.
Reuters was unable to determine the impact of the prince’s message on Iran’s leadership.
In the meeting, Pezeshkian responded that Iran wanted a deal to ease economic pressure through the lifting of Western sanctions, the four sources said.
However, the Iranian officials, the sources added, expressed concerns over the Trump administration’s “unpredictable” approach to negotiations — which have veered from allowing limited uranium enrichment to demanding the complete dismantling of Tehran’s enrichment program.
Trump also has threatened to use military force if diplomacy fails to rein in the clerical establishment’s nuclear ambitions.
One of the Iranian sources said that Pezeshkian emphasized Tehran’s eagerness to reach a deal but that Iran was not willing to sacrifice its enrichment program just because Trump wanted an agreement.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Israel did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The White House did not directly address Reuters’ questions about whether it was aware of the Saudi warning to Iran.
“President Trump has made it clear: make a deal, or face grave consequences, and the whole world is clearly taking him seriously, as they should,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Iran, which avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it has been enriching uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, has obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and has expanded its ballistic missile capabilities, while several officials have increasingly warned that they could pursue the bomb.
The ongoing talks between Washington and Tehran have already been through five rounds to resolve the decades-long nuclear dispute, but multiple stumbling blocks remain, including the key issue of enrichment.
The Wall Street Journal reported early Friday that Israel is worried the US will drop its demand that Iran fully stop enrichment.
Confirming that the two countries aren’t seeing eye-to-eye as to the best way to approach a new nuclear agreement, an unnamed senior US official told the news outlet that there are “some disagreements with Israel over how to approach this right now.”
The official seemingly indicated, however, that the US could eventually back Israel’s pursuit of military action, “if they [Iran] don’t want to make a deal.”
The report also said the US is preparing a “term sheet” as part of an interim framework for a deal, as talks progress, and that the sheet will include a total ban on enrichment.
The senior US official told the newspaper: “If they don’t accept these terms, it’s not going to be a good day for the Iranians.”
That report also noted that, with negotiations ongoing, Iran has been digging beneath its main Natanz enrichment plant.
Citing people with knowledge of Iran’s nuclear program, the report said the work “is far from complete, but eventually it could allow Iran to produce fuel for nuclear weapons out of reach of airstrikes,” noting this could sway Israel in the direction of an attack, even with talks still ongoing.
Trump said on Wednesday that he had warned Netanyahu last week not to take any actions that could disrupt nuclear talks with Iran, and said the two sides were “very close to a solution now.”
According to American officials, the US hopes an interim framework will address Israel’s concerns and stave off any imminent attack.
“No one in the Trump administration has the patience for a years (sic) of drawn-out negotiations, particularly with the risk of Israeli strikes on Iran,” the Journal reported.