President Donald Trump spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday morning, according to The Wall Street Journal, checking in with the Middle East ally as the United States prepares for the possibility of restarting bombing in Iran.
The call, reported by the Journal citing people familiar with the conversation, came days after Trump huddled at the White House with his top military commanders about options to resume major combat operations in the region. It also came on the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump had not yet decided whether to launch fresh strikes and preferred a diplomatic solution.
The Journal, datelined Palm Beach, Florida, reported that Trump spoke with Netanyahu on Saturday morning, checking in with the Israeli leader "as the U.S. prepares to restart bombing in Iran." The newspaper said the conversation came days after Trump met at the White House with his top military commanders about options for resuming major combat operations, a meeting it had previously reported.
The White House and the Israeli prime minister's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the call, according to the reporting summarised by i24NEWS. No readout of the call, and no account of what either leader said on it, has been published, and this article does not invent one.
The call also landed in the middle of the final midterm campaign push. The Journal noted that Trump is making a final effort to motivate Republican voters ahead of the November 3 elections, in which the unpopular Middle East war has contributed to higher fuel prices and been a drag on Republican enthusiasm.
The war began with a joint US-Israeli attack in February 2026, and almost two months have passed since the last American strike in Iran. Trump has previously pledged that he would not renew strikes before the November 3 midterm elections, given voters' unfavourable view of the war's handling.
Reports this week have pointed in both directions. MS NOW reported on Friday, citing three senior Gulf Arab officials, that the administration had briefed Gulf allies to prepare for a short, intense round of strikes as soon as November 4, the day after the elections. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that Washington had advised Middle East allies to prepare for the possibility that military action could resume after the elections and that Iran might retaliate.
At the same time, a diplomatic track has continued. Vice President JD Vance contacted an Iranian official this week in an attempt to restart negotiations, according to The Wall Street Journal, and Qatari mediators visited Tehran on Friday. Al-Araby Al-Jadeed reported on Saturday that a US delegation would hold direct talks with an Iranian delegation in Doha, with preliminary agreements reported on Iran's nuclear programme, the Strait of Hormuz and economic incentives, with China and Russia as guarantors. Neither Washington nor Tehran has publicly confirmed a draft agreement.
The significance of the call lies less in what is known about its contents, which have not been disclosed, than in its timing and its participants. A call between the US president and the Israeli prime minister, days after a White House meeting with the top US commander in the Middle East, CENTCOM Commander Brad Cooper, and on the same day the secretary of state publicly stressed that no strike decision had been taken, shows both tracks, military preparation and diplomacy, running at once.
That duality was visible in Rubio's own remarks. Speaking after a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta on Saturday, Rubio said: "We can achieve military objectives if we seek to. He hasn't made a decision." He added that Trump preferred a diplomatic solution and would have attacked "weeks ago, months ago" otherwise, and that any settlement would have to address Washington's core security concerns, including preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Rubio also said direct and indirect contacts with Tehran were continuing, but declined to give a timetable for an agreement, saying: "There are multiple talks. Talks have actually never stopped."
Trump said on Friday that Iran was interested in holding talks with Washington and that the war "is going to be over very soon." "We're going to have a non-nuclear Iran. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won't have a nuclear weapon, and that's going to end very soon," he said in an interview with KCMO radio.
On Friday, in the Oval Office, Trump defended the war and said the United States had "time," adding that Iran was struggling to pay its soldiers and police. He also claimed the costs of the Iran campaign had been more than recovered through Venezuela, a claim that is sure to be fact-checked and is reported here as his claim, not as an established fact.
From Tehran, the response on Saturday was a warning. A statement attributed to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered the armed forces to respond immediately and without "geographic limits" to "any enemy threat," and ordered an update of the military target list to bring US and Israeli "physical and non-physical" assets within reach. Iran's top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, said Tehran was debating whether to maintain its longstanding ban on nuclear weapons if hostilities resumed, while stressing that no formal decision had been taken to change Iran's nuclear doctrine, and that nuclear negotiations could begin only after Washington accepted Tehran's demands.
The call matters because Israel is both the closest US ally in the region and a party to the original February attack. Any renewed American campaign would almost certainly be read in Tehran, and in Gulf capitals, alongside Israel's posture, and Gulf allies have already been lobbying Washington to de-escalate, fearing Iranian retaliation against their own energy and infrastructure.
It also matters for the election. With voting on Tuesday, November 3, and early voting already at record levels, the war's costs, in fuel prices and in voter enthusiasm, are a live campaign issue. A strike decision deferred until after the election, as the November 4 reporting suggests, would keep the question open through polling day rather than settling it.
Finally, the call underlines how little is settled. Rubio says no decision has been taken. The Journal reports preparations to restart bombing. Qatari mediators report progress toward a deal. Khamenei orders preparations for wider retaliation. All four can be true at once, and that is precisely why the next few days are so closely watched.
Three dates now frame the story. On Sunday, November 1, Trump is due to campaign in Kansas and Iowa after restoring rallies he had cancelled earlier in the week. On Tuesday, November 3, Americans vote in the midterm elections. On Wednesday, November 4, according to the MS NOW report, is the earliest date Gulf allies have been told to prepare for renewed strikes, though Rubio's statement leaves open the possibility that diplomacy, not strikes, follows.
Watch for any White House or Israeli readout of the Trump-Netanyahu call, for further word from the Doha talks, and for whether the reported direct US-Iran meeting in Doha takes place. Any of those would be a genuinely new development, and US News Pulse will report it as one.
Did Trump speak with Netanyahu about Iran? Yes, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported that Trump spoke by telephone with Netanyahu on Saturday morning, citing people familiar with the call, as Washington weighs renewed military action against Iran.
Has Trump decided to strike Iran again? No, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said on Saturday in Atlanta that Trump "hasn't made a decision" and prefers a diplomatic solution.
When could strikes resume? MS NOW reported, citing Gulf officials, that allies were told to prepare for strikes as soon as November 4, the day after the midterm elections. That date is a reported briefing, not a confirmed decision.
What did Iran say on Saturday? Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered commanders to prepare an immediate response without geographic limits to any new attack, and top security official Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran was debating its nuclear-weapons ban if hostilities resumed.
Are talks still happening? Yes, according to Rubio, who said direct and indirect contacts with Tehran have never stopped, and Reuters reported Iranian negotiators met Qatari mediators in Doha after more than 12 hours of talks in Tehran on Friday.
Related coverage on US News Pulse includes the Rubio statement on the Iran strike decision, the reported US-Iran draft framework, and the third US aircraft carrier deployment.
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