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Saudi Arabia Warned Iran to Reach Nuclear Deal With Trump or Risk Israeli Strike
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman in Tehran, Iran, April 17, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
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 Araqchi, the sources said.
While media covered the 37-year-old prince’s visit, the content of the King Salman’s covert message has not been previously reported.
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 that direct talks were taking place with Tehran, aimed at curbing Iran‘s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. He did so in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had traveled to Washington hoping instead to win support for attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.
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 – already riven by recent conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon – could not withstand a further escalation in tensions, said the two Gulf sources and one senior foreign diplomat familiar with the discussions.
Iranian authorities did not respond to a request for comment before this story was published, but after its publication Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei “categorically denied” Reuters’ report, according to Iran‘s semi-official Fars news agency. Authorities in Saudi Arabia did not respond to a request for comment.
The visit by Prince Khalid – the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – was the first by a senior member of the Saudi royal family to Iran in more than two decades. Riyadh and Tehran had long been bitter rivals, often backing opposing sides in proxy wars, until a rapprochement brokered by China in 2023 helped to ease the tensions and restored diplomatic ties.
Over the past two years, Iran‘s regional position has been undermined by heavy military blows inflicted by Israel on its allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and toppling of its close ally, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Western sanctions, meanwhile, have hit its oil-dependent economy hard.
Mohanad Hage Ali, an expert on Iran at the Carnegie Middle East Center think tank in Beirut, said that Tehran’s weakness had offered Saudi Arabia the opportunity to exert its diplomatic influence, seeking to avoid a regional conflagration.
“They [the Saudis’ want to avoid war because war and confrontation with Iran will have negative implications on them and their economic vision and ambitions,” he told Reuters.
IRAN WANTS A DEAL
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.
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.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Iran might pause uranium enrichment if the US releases its frozen funds and recognizes its right to refine uranium for civilian use under a “political deal” that could lead to a broader nuclear accord, according to two Iranian sources familiar with the talks. The semi-official Fars news agency in Iran quoted a foreign ministry spokesman denying the report.
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.
Trump said on Wednesday he 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.”
Israeli authorities did not respond to a request for comment.
HIGH STAKES
A four-day visit by Trump to the Gulf this month anointed Saudi Arabia as the most prominent member of a new axis of Sunni states in the Middle East, filling the void left by Iran‘s shattered alliance. During the trip, Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman mediated a reconciliation between Trump and Syria’s new Sunni leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Tehran’s regional sway, meanwhile, has been diminished by military setbacks suffered by Iran and its allies in the Shi’ite-dominated Axis of Resistance, which include Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iraqi militias
In the meeting, Prince Khalid urged Iran to rethink its regional policy, noting such a shift would be welcomed, especially by Riyadh, the sources said.
Although he stopped short of directly blaming Iran, the Saudi minister voiced concern over a possible repeat of the 2019 drone attacks on the facilities of state oil company Aramco – attacks the kingdom attributed to Iran and its Houthi allies, despite Tehran’s denial.
Iranian officials maintained that while Tehran holds some influence over the Houthis, it does not fully control their actions, the Iranian sources said.
Decades of hostility between the Shi’ite Iran and Saudi Arabia destabilized the Gulf and fueled regional conflicts from Yemen to Syria. The 2023 detente was driven in part by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed’s economic ambitions and desire for stability, and has led to increased contacts between the governments.
However, neither Saudi Arabia nor other regional powers see Iran as a dependable partner for peace, and they fear its actions could jeopardize their ambitions for economic development, diplomats and regional experts say.
Prince Khalid implored the Iranians to avoid actions by them and their allies that might provoke Washington, stressing that Trump‘s response would likely be more strident than his predecessors, presidents Joe Biden and Barak Obama.
In turn, he assured Tehran that Riyadh would not let its territory or airspace to be used by the United States or Israel for any potential military action against Iran, the sources said.
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UN Security Council Meets on Iran as Russia, China Push for a Ceasefire
Members of the Security Council cast a vote during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at UN headquarters in New York, US, Feb. 24, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/David Dee Delgado
The U.N. Security Council met on Sunday to discuss US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites as Russia, China and Pakistan proposed the 15-member body adopt a resolution calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Middle East.
It was not immediately clear when it could be put to a vote. The three countries circulated the draft text, said diplomats, and asked members to share their comments by Monday evening. A resolution needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by the United States, France, Britain, Russia or China to pass.
The US is likely to oppose the draft resolution, seen by Reuters, which also condemns attacks on Iran’s nuclear sites and facilities. The text does not name the United States or Israel.
“The bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States marks a perilous turn in a region that is already reeling,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Sunday. “We now risk descending into a rathole of retaliation after retaliation.”
“We must act – immediately and decisively – to halt the fighting and return to serious, sustained negotiations on the Iran nuclear program,” Guterres said.
The world awaited Iran’s response on Sunday after President Donald Trump said the US had “obliterated” Tehran’s key nuclear sites, joining Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution.
U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that while craters were visible at Iran’s enrichment site buried into a mountain at Fordow, “no one – including the IAEA – is in a position to assess the underground damage.”
Grossi said entrances to tunnels used for the storage of enriched material appear to have been hit at Iran’s sprawling Isfahan nuclear complex, while the fuel enrichment plant at Natanz has been struck again.
“Iran has informed the IAEA there has been no increase in off-site radiation levels at all three sites,” said Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran requested the U.N. Security Council meeting, calling on the 15-member body “to address this blatant and unlawful act of aggression, to condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”
Israel‘s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon said in a statement on Sunday that the U.S. and Israel “do not deserve any condemnation, but rather an expression of appreciation and gratitude for making the world a safer place.”
Danon told reporters before the council meeting that it was still early when it came to assessing the impact of the U.S. strikes. When asked if Israel was pursuing regime change in Iran, Danon said: “That’s for the Iranian people to decide, not for us.”
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Israel Rejects Critical EU Report Ahead of Ministers’ Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises from Gaza after an explosion, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, June 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israel has rejected a European Union report saying it may be breaching human rights obligations in Gaza and the West Bank as a “moral and methodological failure,” according to a document seen by Reuters on Sunday.
The note, sent to EU officials ahead of a foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday, said the report by the bloc’s diplomatic service failed to consider Israel’s challenges and was based on inaccurate information.
“The Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejects the document … and finds it to be a complete moral and methodological failure,” the note said, adding that it should be dismissed entirely.
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Pope Leo Urges International Diplomacy to Prevent ‘Irreparable Abyss’
FILE PHOTO: Pope Leo XIV holds a Jubilee audience on the occasion of the Jubilee of Sport, at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican June 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yara Nardi/File Photo
Pope Leo on Sunday said the international community must strive to avoid war that risks opening an “irreparable abyss,” and that diplomacy should take the place of conflict.
US forces struck Iran’s three main nuclear sites overnight, joining an Israeli assault in a major new escalation of conflict in the Middle East as Tehran vowed to defend itself.
“Every member of the international community has a moral responsibility: to stop the tragedy of war before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” Pope Leo said during his weekly prayer with pilgrims.
“No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, the stolen future. Let diplomacy silence the weapons, let nations chart their future with peace efforts, not with violence and bloody conflicts,” he added.
“In this dramatic scenario, which includes Israel and Palestine, the daily suffering of the population, especially in Gaza and other territories, risks being forgotten, where the need for adequate humanitarian support is becoming increasingly urgent,” Pope Leo said.
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