US President Donald Trump said after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday they reached no "definitive" agreement on how to move forward with Iran but he insisted negotiations with Tehran would continue to see if a deal can be achieved.

Netanyahu, who had been expected to press Trump to widen diplomacy with Iran beyond its nuclear programme to include limits on its missile arsenal, stressed that Israel's security interests must be taken into account but offered no sign that the president made the commitments he sought.

In their seventh meeting since Trump ⁠returned to office last year, Netanyahu – whose visit was more muted than usual and closed to the press – was looking to influence the next round of US discussions with Iran following nuclear negotiations held in Oman last Friday.

The two leaders spoke behind closed doors for more than two and a half hours in what Trump described as a "very good meeting" but said no major decisions were made and stopped short of publicly accepting Netanyahu's entreaties.

"That speaks... to the fact that the American side particularly wanted to make sure that the focus was going to be on the substance of conversations," according to RTHK's Washington correspondent Simon Marks.

"They knew (the talks) had the possibility of being quite thorny and quite difficult with the Israeli Prime Minister."

Speaking on the Hong Kong Today programme, Marks agreed the latest meeting was unusually low profile.

"The Israeli prime minister... is known to have been frustrated during previous visits to the White House where President Trump -- in his presence -- has often extemporised about policy towards Israel, Gaza, the Middle East more broadly.

"So this may have been an effort by both sides to keep the conversations as private as possible, not to engage in any of the usual media outreach."

Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if no agreement is reached, while Tehran has vowed to retaliate, stoking fears of a wider war as the US amasses forces in the Middle East.

He has repeatedly voiced support for a secure Israel, a longstanding US ally and arch-foe of Iran.

In media interviews on Tuesday, Trump reiterated his blunt warning to Iran, while saying he believes Tehran wants a deal.

"There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated," Trump said in a social media post after the meeting with Netanyahu.

"If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference."

"If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be," Trump added, noting that the last time ⁠Iran decided against an agreement the US struck its nuclear sites last June.

Trump told Fox Business in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that a ⁠good deal with Iran would mean "no nuclear weapons, no missiles," ⁠without elaborating.

He also told Axios he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group as part of a major US buildup near Iran.

"The Prime Minister emphasised the security needs of the State of Israel in the context of the negotiations, and the two agreed to continue their close coordination and tight contact," Netanyahu's office said in a statement after Wednesday's talks.

Iran has said it is prepared to discuss curbs on its nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions but has ruled out linking the issue to missiles.

"The Islamic Republic's missile capabilities are non-negotiable," Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran's ⁠supreme leader, said on Wednesday. (Reuters)
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Last updated: 2026-02-12 HKT 09:10