Netanyahu meets Trump as Iran talks broaden in focus (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: But let's look now at the Middle East with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, due to meet President Trump at the White House later today. The talks they're holding are widely expected to focus on Iran. Mr. Netanyahu wants the U.S. to push Tehran to cut its ballistic missile program and support for armed groups across the Middle East. Iran repeatedly saying it will only discuss its nuclear program and suggested it might be ready to limit its ambitions in return for sanctions relief. The negotiations restarted last week against the backdrop of a large American military buildup in the region. Let's take you to our Middle East correspondent Yolande Nell who joins us from Jerusalem. Yolande Benjamin Netanyahu, very experienced with American presidents, very experienced when it comes to these kind of meetings and he knows President Trump well. What is it though that he is going to be after from the U.S. President?

[00:00:51] Speaker 2: Well what Israel really wants to see is the U.S. widening the scope of its talks with Iran so that they embrace more than just its nuclear program. It wants to look at this issue of ballistic missiles, the arsenal that Iran has been building up. It wants to look at Iran's support for proxies around this region whether it's Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen. But Iran has been insisting that this should be first and foremost about its nuclear program. We've had some new comments in the course of the day from the Iranian president saying that they won't yield to excessive demands. And you've also got an advisor to the supreme leader in Iran being quoted on Noor News, Iranian media, saying as well that Iran's missile capabilities are its red line. They are not subject to negotiation. And this all appears to be happening at a key moment because we've had that first round of talks between the U.S. and Iran in Oman at the end of last week. And you know the American negotiators are expected to go ahead with another round of talks soon.

[00:02:06] Speaker 1: Yolande, do you think that they will get on to Gaza or is President Trump just leaving that until the Board of Peace meets next week?

[00:02:15] Speaker 2: So this is primarily about Iran. According to the Israeli prime minister, that's what he told journalists before he left. And indeed he was supposed to be going to the U.S. for that Board of Peace meeting next week. But he brought his visit forward because of the advances in talks between the U.S. and Iran. He has said that Gaza will be on the agenda. And of course this is happening at the time when the U.S. has said it's moving on with the second phase of President Trump's peace plan, the more complicated phase. We've had the Israeli prime minister reiterating in recent days that Hamas must be forced to disarm. We understand from U.S. media reports that plans are being drawn up about how to achieve that in the U.S. So the Israeli prime minister will want to influence those as well. And you can imagine that the U.S. will also want answers on why the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt has not been opened up more fully, on why Palestinian technocrats who have been approved to go in and manage the day-to-day governance of the Gaza Strip to take over from Hamas and be overseen by the Board of Peace, why they've not yet entered into Gaza. At the same time, this meeting in Washington is going to be taking place amid a lot of international condemnation about another development this week where Israel really sort of announced a series of measures that will deepen its control over the West Bank.

[00:03:44] Speaker 1: Yiran, thank you.