US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to intensify the “maximum pressure policy” in order to force Iran to give up its nuclear program, including clamping down on the sale of Tehran’s oil to China, according to a Saturday report citing two US officials.

At the two leaders’ meeting at the White House earlier this week, “we agreed that we will go full force with maximum pressure against Iran, for example, regarding Iranian oil sales to China,” a senior American official told Axios.

According to the report, some 80 percent of Iran’s oil exports go to China, leading the US and Israel to believe that clamping down on trade between the two countries would “significantly” increase economic pressure on Tehran.

Trump, under authority by an executive order he signed last week, could impose 25% tariffs on China for trading with Iran.

The pressure campaign will be implemented alongside the ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran, the report said.

The US believes that Iran will present its answer to Washington’s proposal during next week’s meeting, the report said, though a US official told Axios that there is “zero chance” of an agreement.

“We are sober and realistic about the Iranians. The ball is in their court. If it is not a real deal, we will not take it,” a second US official said.

The report also quoted Wednesday’s meeting at the White House between Trump and Netanyahu, with the prime minister expressing skepticism that Tehran would honor an agreement with the US, even if one is reached.

It’s “impossible” to do a deal with Iran, Netanyahu reportedly said, arguing that even if Tehran signs a deal, it will not abide by it.

“We’ll see if it’s possible. Let’s give it a shot,” Trump is said to have replied.

The report added that Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner told the US president that the Iranians are “saying all the right things” in the talks, and that the pair “will continue with the negotiations and take a tough line.”

If Iran agrees to what the US is asking, then the two envoys will give Trump the option “so that he can decide if he wants to do it,” a US official said, according to the report.

Axios also pointed to a recent report by an Iranian journalist, which claimed that Witkoff’s proposal included that Iran suspend its enrichment for “three to five years,” after which, Iran would be allowed to enrich uranium to “very low levels.”

The reported proposal also stipulated the “removal of 450 kilograms of highly enriched uranium” that Iran currently holds, and its relocation to a third country. Tehran rejected the proposal, according to the Iranian report.

Axios noted that a US official denied that Washington ever proposed such an offer.

Rubio: Trump would meet Khamenei

Also on Saturday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump would meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to solve disputes between the two countries, in an interview with Bloomberg while in Munich attending the city’s global security conference.

“I’m pretty confident in saying that if the ayatollah said tomorrow he wanted to meet with President Trump, the President would meet him, not because he agrees with the ayatollah but because he thinks that’s the way you solve problems in the world, and he doesn’t view meeting someone as a concession,” Rubio said.

The top diplomat has said in the past that Trump is willing to meet with any world leader to resolve disputes.

“Number one is I think it’s pretty clear that Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon, that that poses a threat not just to the United States, to Europe, to world security, and to the region. There’s no doubt about it,” he said when asked if Washington is running out of patience with Tehran given that Trump is building up forces and sending another aircraft carrier to the region.

“The second is we obviously want to have forces in the region because Iran has shown the willingness and the capability to lash out and strike out at the United States presence in the region,” Rubio said.

“We have bases because of our alliances in the region, and Iran has shown in the past that they are willing to attack us and/or threaten our bases. So we have to have sufficient firepower in the region to ensure that they don’t make a mistake and come after us and trigger something larger,” he added, stressing that Trump prefers to resolve the dispute with a deal.

US President Donald Trump told Prime Minister Netanyahu in December that he would support Israeli strikes on Iran’s ballistic missile program if the US and Iran could not reach a deal, CBS News reported on Sunday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

The US outlet reported that discussions about such an attack, roughly eight months after the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, are ongoing. During last year’s war, the US joined the Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. This time, the American role in an Israeli attack would involve helping jets refuel in midair or aiding Israel in receiving permission to fly over neighboring countries, CBS reported.

Several countries have said they would not let their airspace be used for an attack on Iran.

The report came as Iran’s foreign minister departed for Geneva on Sunday ahead of a second round of talks with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program, and as Netanyahu voiced skepticism that the negotiations would succeed.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also acknowledged that the talks could fail, while emphasizing that Trump remains committed to seeing them through. Iran, meanwhile, signaled flexibility on its nuclear program and urged Washington to pursue a deal with mutual economic benefits.

Since making the threats, Trump has pursued the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, saying after his White House meeting with Netanyahu last week that he “insisted” diplomacy be given a chance.

At the same time, however, he has built up US military force in the Middle East and warned Tehran of dire consequences if the talks fail. He said last week, regarding regime change in Iran, that it “seems like that would be the best thing that could happen.”

Netanyahu has consistently accused Iran of duplicity, a claim he repeated in a speech on Sunday. Speaking in Jerusalem, he told US Jewish leaders that Trump was “determined to exhaust the possibilities of achieving a deal, which he believes can be achieved now” with Iran, before resorting to force.

“I will not hide from you that I express my skepticism of any deal with Iran,” he told a delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, “because, frankly, Iran is reliable on one thing — that they lie and they cheat.”

Netanyahu laid out four Israeli demands regarding any deal with Iran, including the removal of the country’s entire stock of enriched uranium and the dismantling of its nuclear facilities.

“The first is that all enriched material has to leave Iran,” he said. “The second is that there should be no enrichment capability… dismantle the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place.”

He also demanded that the talks limit Iran’s ballistic missile program and address its support for proxy terror groups — issues that Iran has said should not be part of the current negotiations.

US Secretary of State Rubio, also speaking on Sunday, said Trump would prefer a negotiated settlement but likewise expressed skepticism.

“No one’s ever been able to do a successful deal with Iran, but we’re going to try,” he said at a news conference in Bratislava.

An unnamed source told Reuters last week that a US delegation, including envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, would meet Iranian officials in Geneva on Tuesday, a meeting confirmed to Reuters by a senior Iranian official on Sunday.

“Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will be traveling, I think they are traveling right now, to have important meetings, and we’ll see how that turns out,” Rubio said, without providing further details.

During his visit to Geneva, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to hold talks with his Swiss and Omani counterparts as well as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, and other international officials, the Iranian foreign ministry statement said.

Considerable uncertainty surrounds the fate of Iran’s stockpile of more than 400 kilograms of 60-percent enriched uranium that was last seen by nuclear watchdog inspectors in June.

Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi signaled Iran’s readiness to compromise on its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief, telling the BBC earlier on Sunday that the ball was “in America’s court to prove that they want to do a deal.”

The senior official referred to the Iranian atomic chief’s statement the week prior that the country could agree to dilute its most highly enriched uranium in exchange for the lifting of sanctions as an example of Iran’s flexibility.

However, he reiterated that Tehran would not accept zero uranium enrichment, a key sticking point in past negotiations, with Washington viewing enrichment inside Iran as a potential pathway to nuclear weapons.

Iran has consistently denied seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. However, it enriched uranium to levels that have no peaceful application, obstructed international inspectors from checking its nuclear facilities, and expanded its ballistic missile capabilities.

Another Iranian official touted potential energy, mining, and aircraft deals that are on the table in the talks with the US.

“For the sake of an agreement’s durability, it is essential that the US also benefits in areas with high and quick economic returns,” foreign ministry deputy director for economic diplomacy Hamid Ghanbari said, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. “Common interests in the oil and gas fields, joint fields, mining investments, and even aircraft purchases are included in the negotiations.”

The talks are the second attempt at negotiations between Iran and the US since Trump returned to office early last year. Previous talks between the two countries fell apart shortly before the Israel-Iran war in June 2025.

In 2018, Trump unilaterally withdrew from the Barack Obama-era Iran deal, which reduced sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear program. Washington claimed Iranian non-compliance at the time of the withdrawal and began reimposing tough economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

While talks leading to the 2015 nuclear pact were multilateral, the current negotiations are confined to Iran and the United States, with Muscat acting as mediator.