Netanyahu to meet Trump next week for crunch talks on Iran as US warns of ‘very steep consequences’ if deal isn’t struck

BENJAMIN Netanyahu is expected to fly to Washington to meet with Donald Trump on Wednesday as the pair try to hash out a deal with Iran.

Israel’s prime minister has moved forward his visit to the US amid heightened tensions in the Middle East after Trump warned of “very steep” consequences for the bloodthirsty Ayatollah if a deal can’t be cut.

Peace prospects appeared bleak this week as it was revealed the Iranians had flat out refused US demands to stop enriching uranium towards weapons-grade level.

Talks in Oman were cut short on Friday – with a huge gulf between the two sides – after Khamenei’s henchmen refused to budge on pleas to halt its nuclear programs.

Trump also wants assurances from the regime over their ballistic missiles and protest crackdowns.

Further talks between the US and Iran are expected in the coming weeks but only after Netanyahu’s visit to the White House.

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu has clear terms to put forward to Trump over what a plan must include.

They said on a statement: “The Prime Minister believes that any negotiations must include restrictions on ballistic missiles and an end to support for the Iranian axis.”

Netanyahu was originally scheduled to be in Washington for four days starting on February 18, but the meeting was moved forward a week at the premier’s request, a White House Official told Axios.

Trump warned the Ayatollah that he must strike a deal which suits all parties of face severe consequences.

He said on Air Force One that negotiations had got off to a “good start” but added Iran must agree to have “no nuclear weapons”.

Iran is said to have been been enriching uranium up to 60 per cent purity – close to weapons-grade levels – and is feared to have moved stocks to new secret laboratories.

Talks were led by Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner with an Iranian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

But the Iranian were said to have been infuriated by the arrival of an unexpected addition to the American team – CENTCOM military chief, General Brad Cooper.

Iranian sources claimed his arrival was intended to intimidate them, saying it was like “conducting negotiations with a gun on the table”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the first round of talks: “I’m not sure you can reach a deal with these guys, but we’re going to try to find out.”

Washington’s tactics have been on full display ever since a huge US battleship fleet led by the USS Abraham Lincoln was sent within striking distance of Iran last month.

The mammoth aircraft carrier is backed by hundreds of warplanes standing by to strike Iran, with more firepower on the way.

Trump appears to be closely following his own previously successful plans on how to tame a foreign tyrant.

The US president said his huge armada is prepared to “wait around a while” just as it did before the dramatic raid on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January.

And a similar – or deadlier – operation is among options currently being weighed up by Trump as Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei continues to cling to power following the slaughter of an estimated 36,000 protesters.

If the negotiations do prove to be unsuccessful then Trump has already shown in the past he will strike Tehran.

Multiple rounds of negotiations between the US and Iran were ongoing when he ordered a surprise Stealth Bomber attack on the rogue nation’s atom sites last June.

Trump dropped 12 30,000lb bunker busting bombs which he claimed went through enemy nuclear sites like “absolite butter”.

RISING TENSIONS

On Tuesday, US forces were forced to shoot down an Iranian drone flying too close to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier 500 miles off the Iranian coast.

The move was quickly followed up by Iran warning of its powerful weapons arsenal.

State TV said “one of the country’s most advanced long-range ballistic missiles” –  the Khorramshahr-4 – was deployed at an underground Revolutionary Guard facility.

Iran fired the Khorramshahr-4 at Israel last June in retaliation after US Stealth Bomber strikes.

Brigadier General Mohammad Akraminia said Trump “must choose between compromise or war”.

Akraminia added that if war breaks out, “its scope will encompass the entire geography of the region and all US bases”.

Tensions rose further as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized two oil tankers with their foreign crews in Gulf waters for “smuggling fuel”.

Gulf Arab nations fear an attack could spark a regional war, dragging them in as well.

Diplomats from Egypt, Turkey and Qatar have offered Iran a proposal in a desperate bid to keep the peace.

It would mean Tehran could halt enrichment for three years, send its uranium out of the country and pledge to not initiate the use of ballistic missiles.

Russia has suggested it would take the uranium, but Iran shrugged off ending its weapons programme or shipping out resources as a nonstarter.

The offering follows the bombshell revelation that Russia has been funnelling billions of dollars in cash to Iran to help prop up the regime, the Telegraph reports.

A state-owned Russian bank started deliveries of around $2.5billion (£1.9billion) to the Islamic Republic just days after Trump imposed sanctions on Tehran in 2018.

The covert payments reveal how Russia has desperately supported the brutal regime in times of crisis to ensure its survival, experts say.