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Trump, Netanyahu Meet in DC, Talk Tariffs and Iran as White House Cancels Press Conference
US President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, April 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
The White House on Monday canceled a joint press conference planned for the afternoon with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington, DC, to discuss a range of issues including the Trump administration’s new global tariff offensive.
There was no explanation for the surprise decision to nix the press conference moments before Netanyahu’s arrival. However, the two leaders took questions in the Oval Office from a smaller group of reporters.
During their second in-person meeting since Trump’s inauguration in January, Trump and Netanyahu discussed Iran’s nuclear program and the new US tariffs placed on the Jewish state, among other issues.
“We’re having direct talks with Iran” beginning on Saturday,” Trump said in the Oval Office while meeting with Netanyahu.
“We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen,” Trump said, adding that Iran is “going to be in great danger” if the direct talks don’t go well.
Trump recently threatened to bomb Iran if the regime does not agree to a deal to curb its nuclear program, which the US and Israel believe is ultimately meant to build nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear activities are meant for peaceful, civilian purposes.
However, the primary topic of conversation on Monday was Trump’s newly unveiled tariff policy.
“I can tell you that I said to the president, a very simple thing — we will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Netanyahu said. “We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do. And we’re also going to eliminate trade barriers.”
The US announced last week that it will impose 17 percent tariffs on goods imported from Israel under a major new trade initiative that Trump announced. As part of Trump’s sweeping set of tariffs, the US will impose a 10 percent baseline tariff on all imports to the US and higher duties on some countries with which it has larger trade deficits.
Washington decided on the 17-percent figure for Israel because it is half of the 33 percent tariffs that the White House says the Jewish state has put in place for some American products. Israel and the United States — the Jewish state’s largest trading partner — completed $34 billion in bilateral trade in 2024. Of that, over $22 billion came from exports from Israel to the US, including diamonds, medications, and electronic devices.
While unveiling the slate of new tariffs on international trade partners, the White House cited a “lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships” that is “indicated by large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits.”
Trump’s announcement came one day after Israel removed all tariffs on US goods. Israeli officials had hoped that dropping the tariffs would prevent the White House from placing its own tariffs on the Jewish state. Jerusalem will reportedly launch efforts to convince the Trump administration to reverse its decision.
The short-notice meeting between Trump and Netanyahu appears to be part of such an effort.
While leaving Hungary on Sunday, Netanyahu revealed that he will be “the first international leader, the first foreign leader” to hold a discussion with Trump regarding the tariffs and that the planned meeting is reflective of “the special personal relationship and the special bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time.”
“I believe this reflects the special personal relationship and the special bond between the United States and Israel, which is so vital at this time,” Netanyahu said.
Following his arrival on Sunday, Netanyahu met with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the two masterminds behind the massive tariff plan that has plunged stock markets throughout the world. Trump’s proposed 17 percent tax on Israeli imports sparked frustrations within the Jewish state, with critics arguing that the proposal has the potential to destabilize the country’s economy.
In a post on X/Twitter, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister’s meeting with Lutnick and Greer was “warm, friendly, and productive.”
The post Trump, Netanyahu Meet in DC, Talk Tariffs and Iran as White House Cancels Press Conference first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Trump Is Lying When He Speaks of Peace
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with government officials in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2025. Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Donald Trump on Saturday of lying when the US president said during his Gulf tour this week that he wanted peace in the region.
On the contrary, said Khamenei, the United States uses its power to give “10-ton bombs to the Zionist (Israeli) regime to drop on the heads of Gaza’s children.”
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One after departing the United Arab Emirates on Friday that Iran had to move quickly on a US proposal for its nuclear program or “something bad’s going to happen.”
His remarks, said Khamenei, “aren’t even worth responding to.” They are an “embarrassment to the speaker and the American people,” Khamenei added.
“Undoubtedly, the source of corruption, war, and conflict in this region is the Zionist regime — a dangerous, deadly cancerous tumor that must be uprooted; it will be uprooted,” he said at an event at a religious center in Tehran, according to state media.
Earlier on Saturday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Trump speaks about peace while simultaneously making threats.
“Which should we believe?” Pezeshkian said at a naval event in Tehran. “On the one hand, he speaks of peace and on the other, he threatens with the most advanced tools of mass killing.”
Tehran would continue Iran-US nuclear talks but is not afraid of threats. “We are not seeking war,” Pezeshkian said.
While Trump said on Friday that Iran had a US proposal about its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in a post on X said Tehran had not received any such proposal. “There is no scenario in which Iran abandons its hard-earned right to (uranium) enrichment for peaceful purposes…” he said.
Araqchi warned on Saturday that Washington’s constant change of stance prolongs nuclear talks, state TV reported.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that America repeatedly defines a new framework for negotiations that prolongs the process,” the broadcast quoted Araqchi as saying.
Pezeshkian said Iran would not “back down from our legitimate rights”.
“Because we refuse to bow to bullying, they say we are source of instability in the region,” he said.
A fourth round of Iran-U.S. talks ended in Oman last Sunday. A new round has not been scheduled yet.
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Hamas Confirms New Gaza Ceasefire Talks with Israel in Qatar on Saturday
Doha, Qatar. Photo: StellarD via Wikimedia Commons.
A new round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is underway in Qatar’s Doha, Hamas official Taher al-Nono told Reuters on Saturday.
He said the two sides were discussing all issues without “pre-conditions.”
Nono said Hamas was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The negotiations come despite Israel preparing to expand operations in the Gaza Strip as they seek “operational control” in some areas of the war-torn enclave.
The return to negotiations also comes after US President Donald Trump ended a Middle East tour on Friday with no apparent progress towards a new ceasefire, although he acknowledged Gaza’s growing hunger crisis and the need for aid deliveries.
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Report: ICC’s Khan Goes on Administrative Leave Amid Sexual Misconduct Probe
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan speaks during an interview with Reuters in The Hague, Netherlands, Feb. 12, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
i24 News – Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan has stepped down temporarily as an investigation into his alleged sexual misconduct by United Nations investigators is nearing its final phase, Reuters reported on Friday citing sources from the international court.
Khan allegedly forced sexual intercourse upon a member of staff on multiple occasions, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, linking the allegations to Khan’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
A statement is expected later today announcing that Khan is going on administrative leave, according to a source in the prosecutor’s office.
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