President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to not attack Iran, or at least to hold off any preemptive action to give more time for Washington and Tehran to forge a nuclear agreement.

“Well, I’d like to be honest. Yes, I did. Next question, please?”...and also: "I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we're very close to a solution," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the issue.

"It’s not a warning," Trump added. "I said, ‘I don’t think it’s appropriate.’ I just said I don’t think it’s appropriate. We’re having very good discussions with them, and I don’t think it’s appropriate right now."

The question to Trump was prompted by an Axios report published the day prior:

President Trump cautioned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call last week not to take any action that could jeopardize negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on a new nuclear deal, a White House official and a source familiar with the details tell Axios.

Trump's message was "he doesn't want him to antagonize at a time when he is trying to solve problems," the official said.

Trump also repeated his tone optimism on the talks, telling reporters, “We’re doing very well with Iran.”

The White House's messaging to Israel has been to say "stay united and let this process play out" - and that the process needs some time. Of course, Trump has still warned that "other options" are on the table should Tehran refuse to make progress.

The Iranians have said they are willing to guarantee (and allow monitoring) that uranium enrichment is only for peaceful nuclear energy production, and will pledge no development of nukes. Critics of Trump point that this was essentially the 2015 JCPOA nuclear which the first Trump administration pulled out of in April 2018.

Plenty of indirect 'threats' were peppered into Trump's Wednesday Iran comments:

Also on Wednesday, the head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog, the IAEA's Rafael Mariano Grossi, said that "the jury is still out" on negotiations. "For the moment, the jury is still out. We don't know whether there's going to be an agreement or not," Grossi told journalists in Vienna.

"I think that is an indication of a willingness to come to an agreement. And I think that, in and by itself, is something possible," he added of ongoing meetings.