Saudi Arabia urges Iran to take Trump’s nuclear deal offer seriously to avoid war with Israel

Saudi Arabia’s defence minister delivered a blunt message to Iranian officials in Tehran last month: take 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 programme in return for sanctions relief. He did so in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had travelled 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.