US having direct talks with Iran over its nuclear programme

Donald Trump has said the US is having direct talks with Iran over its nuclear programme – making a surprise announcement after Iranian officials appeared to rebuff US calls for negotiations.

The president has insisted Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.

He told reporters at the White House: “We’re having direct talks with Iran, and they’ve started. It’ll go on Saturday.

“We have a very big meeting, and we’ll see what can happen. And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable.”

When pressed for more details on the talks, Mr Trump said they are taking place “at almost the highest level”. He would not be drawn on where the meeting is taking place.

“Hopefully those talks will be successful, it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful,” he said. “We hope that’s going to happen.”

Mr Trump made the comments to reporters during an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Netanyahu’s White House visit was also due to include a news conference but this was cancelled earlier on Friday.

Officials said the decision was made because he and Mr Trump had “two back-to-back media availabilities (the greeting in the Oval Office and the formal news conference), and they wanted to streamline things”.

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