On the eve of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump said that the Israeli premier “wants a deal” with Iran, and that the current talks on Tehran’s nuclear program show promise.

“Last time they didn’t believe I would do it,” Trump told Barak Ravid, a reporter with both Israel’s Channel 12 and the Axios news site, about the American strikes in June 2025 on Iran’s nuclear sites at the end of the 12-day Israel-Iran war, which came just days after the collapse of diplomatic negotiations.

“They overplayed their hand,” said Trump. This time, the negotiations are “very different,” he added. “We can make a great deal with Iran.”

The remarks came at a pivotal time in the tensions between the US and Iran. Trump has threatened to attack Iran over its bloody crackdown on anti-regime protesters last month, and Iran has threatened to retaliate by hitting Israel and US targets.

The US is now in the midst of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Trump told Axios that it was a “no-brainer” that any deal with Iran would include its nuclear facilities, and that he expected it would be possible to include its missile program as well.

Netanyahu’s visit to Washington is expected to focus on those talks. And Trump said on Tuesday he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East in the event that the negotiations fail.

“We have an armada that is heading there and another one might be going,” he said, adding that he is “thinking” of sending another aircraft carrier strike group, after boosting the US military presence in the region in recent weeks.

The US president also averred that Netanyahu is not against the current US-Iran talks. “He also wants a deal. He wants a good deal,” he said.

Iran, Trump said, also “wants to make a deal very badly.” But Trump told Ravid that the US isn’t afraid to play tough, saying, “Either we will make a deal or we will have to do something very tough like last time.”

The United States moved the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, ships and warplanes to the Middle East to pressure Iran into an agreement and to have the firepower necessary to strike the Islamic Republic should Trump choose to do so.

Already, US forces shot down a drone they said got too close to the Lincoln, and came to the aid of a........

© The Times of Israel