Trump claims US has held direct nuclear talks with Iran 

US President Donald Trump has announced that direct negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme have begun, after Tehran had previously dismissed Washington’s calls for the talks.

Speaking at the White House on Monday alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said discussions were already underway.

“We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” he told reporters. “And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable.” He did not provide further details.

Trump also warned that Iran will be in “great danger” if diplomatic efforts to curb its nuclear ambitions fail, adding that Tehran “can’t have nuclear weapons”.

Earlier this month Trump told NBC News, “if they [Iran] don’t make a deal, there will be bombing”. He added: “it will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

Over the weekend Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described the prospect of direct negotiations on its nuclear programme with the United States as “meaningless”.

Araghchi’s remarks came after Trump said last month in a letter sent to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that he hoped there would be a negotiation between their countries.

Tehran, which maintains that it is not seeking a nuclear weapon, has so far rejected Washington’s overtures, but has said it is open to indirect diplomacy – a stance repeated by Araghchi in Sunday’s statement.

In 2018, during his first presidency, Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, which had placed strict curbs on Tehran’s nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Iran says its nuclear activities are solely for civilian purposes. Israel, the top US ally in the region, is widely believed to have an undeclared nuclear arsenal.