U.S. President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington “conveyed a reasonable proposal to Iran and is due to receive an answer in the coming days,” per a readout from Netanyahu’s office.
Trump also told Netanyahu that “he intends to hold an additional round of talks with Iran over the weekend,” according to the readout of the call on Monday.
The Trump administration has yet to read the meeting out officially, but reporters asked Trump about it, per the White House pool report.
“How did your phone call go with Prime Minister Netanyahu?” a reporter asked.
“Very good,” Trump said. “We discussed a lot of things, and it went very well. Very smooth. We’ll see what happens.”
“They are good negotiators, but they’re tough. Sometimes they can be too tough,” Trump told reporters. “That’s the problem. We’re trying to make a deal so that there’s no destruction and death, and we’ve told them that, and I’ve told them that.”
“I hope that’s the way it works out, but it might not work out that way,” he said. “We’ll soon find out.”
A reporter asked if Trump had a message for Greta Thunberg and if she came up during his call with Netanyahu.
“She’s a strange person. She’s a young, angry person. I don’t know if it’s real anger. It’s hard to believe actually,” Trump said, of the Swedish activist who sought to enter Gaza in what Israel has described as a “selfie ship.”
“She’s certainly different. I think she has to go to an anger management class,” Trump said. “That’s my primary recommendation.” Asked if Thunberg has been “kidnapped by Israel,” as she has claimed, Trump said, “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg.”
In response to another question about aid in Gaza, Trump said that the Strip “right now is in the midst of a massive negotiation between us and Hamas, and Israel and Iran actually is involved.”
“We’ll see what’s going to happen with Gaza,” he said. “We want to get the hostages back.”
Trump told reporters that the administration has a meeting with Iran slated for Thursday, “so we’re going to wait till Thursday.”
“They’re just asking for things that you can’t do. They don’t want to give up what they have to give up. You know what that is? They seek enrichment. We can’t have enrichment. We want just the opposite, and so far, they’re not there,” Trump said. “I hate to say that, because the alternative is a very, very dire one, but they’re not there.”
“They have given us their thoughts on the deal. I said, you know, it’s just not acceptable,” Trump said, “I would say yes. I don’t know what else. I can talk about the weather, pretty much. That’s the main thing.”
“We talked about Lebanon also,” he said.
Asked about Lebanon, Trump said that the country is “working very hard.”
“They have a great new ambassador that I put there. A man I know very well. He’s very smart. I didn’t even know he was Lebanese,” Trump said of Michel Issa.
“I said, ‘Why? Why would you want Lebanon?’ He said, ‘I was born there. I love it. I love the people.’ I said, ‘You know, it’s very dangerous going to Lebanon,’” Trump said. “There are some ambassadorships that are wonderful. There are some that are dangerous. I said, ‘Michel.’ Michel, his name is. It’s a he. Very elegant man. And I said, ‘Why would you want this?’ And he said, ‘because I love my country and I love those people.’”
Trump told Issa it’s a very dangerous country, the president told reporters.
“He goes, ‘I don’t care.’ This is not a man that lived in danger. He’s a very successful man from here, and he wanted to be the ambassador despite probably a very dangerous situation he’s going into,” Trump said. “I had great respect for that. He loves that country. He loves it. He was born there. He loves the country.”