High-level direct negotiations between the U.S. and Iran will begin on Saturday, President Donald Trump announced in an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Netanyahu, who has historically expressed skepticism about the possibility of reaching an effective nuclear deal with Iran, raised the topic, saying that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. If it can be done diplomatically as it was in Libya, that would be a good thing. But if it can’t, we have to ensure it has no nuclear weapons.” 

In response, the president said: “We are having direct talks with Iran. It’ll go on Saturday.”

Iran, however, has yet to publicly agree to enter direct talks with the U.S.

”I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious,” Trump added, a reference to a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “And the obvious is not something I want to be involved with or frankly, that Israel wants to be involved with if they can avoid it.” 

Trump said Iran’s nuclear program is “getting to be very dangerous territory.” 

Asked the level of the delegation to the nuclear talks, Trump said “high level, very high level … almost the highest level.” He would not say where the talks will take place.

The president’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said he had no comment when asked by Jewish Insider on Monday if he would be involved in the negotiations on Saturday.

Iranian state media reported on Tuesday that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Witkoff will lead the talks, characterized by Araghchi as “indirect,” in Oman. Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi will reportedly serve as the mediator.

The president acknowledged that it’s “a possibility” that Iran is trying to buy time and does not plan to seriously negotiate.

“I think if the talks aren’t successful with Iran, I think Iran is going to be in great danger, and I hate to say it. Great danger,” he said. “Because they can’t have a nuclear weapon. You know, it’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, that’s all there is.”

However, Trump stopped short of threatening to bomb Iran, as he did last week.

The president said that if he makes a deal with Iran, “it’ll be different and maybe a lot stronger” than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 

Deputy Special Envoy Morgan Ortagus said in an interview with Al Arabiya that “what we’re not going to do is get into the Biden trap where you do indirect talks that last for years and the Iranians just string us along. Not happening in this administration.”

“If we’re going to have talks, they need to be quick, they need to be serious about dismantling their nuclear weapons program,” she said. “President Trump wants a peaceful future for both countries, but we’re not going to be extorted like the Biden administration was.” 

Ortagus noted that the U.N. Security Council Resolution underpinning the JCPOA, which would allow parties to the deal to snap back all pre-deal sanctions on Iran, expires in October, and that there have long been grounds to bring back those sanctions, because Iran has been violating the terms of the agreement since 2021.

This story was updated at 4 a.m. ET