President Donald Trump told reporters that if Iran does not give up its nuclear weapons program, military action led by Israel is a real possibility, adding he has a deadline in mind for when the two countries must come to an agreement.

The U.S. and Iran are expected to hold negotiations Saturday in Oman as the Trump administration continues to try to rein in the country’s nuclear program, threatening ‘great danger’ if the two sides fail to come to an agreement. 

Trump told reporters from the Oval Office Wednesday he did have a deadline in mind for when the talks must culminate in an agreed-upon solution, but the president did not go into details about the nature of the timeline.

‘We have a little time, but we don’t have much time, because we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.’ Trump said when pressed on details about his potential timeline. ‘I’m not asking for much. I just — I don’t — they can’t have a nuclear weapon.’

When asked about the potential for military action if Iran does not make a deal on their nuclear weapons, Trump said ‘Absolutely.’ 

‘If it requires military, we’re going to have military,’ the president told reporters. ‘Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. They’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed support for Iran’s complete denuclearization. During a visit to the White House, he expressed support for a deal similar to the one Libya sealed with the international community in 2003. The country gave up its entire nuclear arsenal.

‘Whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons,’ Netanyahu said during the meeting.

The talks with Iran scheduled for Saturday in Oman have been characterized as ‘direct’ talks by Trump, but Iran’s foreign leaders have disputed that assertion, describing the talks as ‘indirect.’ Iran’s leaders have said if the talks go well Saturday, they would be open to further direct negotiations with the U.S. 

Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina, who has been wrongfully detained in Russia for more than a year, is on her way back to the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed early Thursday.

Moscow released Karelina in exchange for German-Russian citizen Arthur Petrov, who was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of the U.S. on charges of exporting sensitive microelectronics, the Wall Street Journal reported.

‘American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States. She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release. @POTUS will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans,’ Rubio wrote on X.

Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in a Russian penal colony after pleading guilty to treason for donating $51.80 to a Ukrainian charity in early 2024.

She was initially detained for ‘petty hooliganism’ while visiting family in Russia in February 2024, but the charge was later upgraded to treason after accusations that she was acting as an American spy.

Russian authorities claimed that Karelina, who lived in Los Angeles, raised money for the Ukrainian army and took part in ‘public actions’ that supported Ukraine while in the U.S. 

Her boyfriend, boxer Chis Van Deerden, told Fox News Digital last year that she was ‘proud to be Russian, and she doesn’t watch the news. She doesn’t intervene with anything about the war.’

She was left out of a massive August 2024 prisoner swap that resulted in the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva.

Details surrounding Karelina’s arrival on U.S. soil were not immediately released.

She is the latest American prisoner detained in another country to be freed under President Donald Trump’s administration. In February, Trump brought American history teacher Marc Fogel, who had been detained in Russia since 2021, back to the U.S.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) account on X shared eyebrow-raising findings from a survey of unemployment insurance claims.

The ‘initial survey of Unemployment Insurance claims since 2020’ found that thousands of people with future birthdates claimed benefits.

The survey also indicated that thousands of supposedly very young and very old people had claimed benefits.

The DOGE post states that the survey found, ‘24.5k people over 115 years old claimed $59M in benefits,’ ’28k people between 1 and 5 years old claimed $254M in benefits,’ and ‘9.7k people with birth dates over 15 years in the future claimed $69M in benefits.’

‘In one case, someone with a birthday in 2154 claimed $41k,’ the post also notes.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of Labor for comment early on Thursday morning, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

‘Your tax dollars were going to pay fraudulent unemployment claims for fake people born in the future! This is so crazy that I had to read it several times before it sank in,’ Elon Musk tweeted.

Musk is spearheading the DOGE effort to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.

‘The oldest living American is 114 years old, so it is safe to say that anyone 115 or older is collecting ‘unemployment’ due to being dead. There was no sanity check for impossibly young or impossibly old people for unemployment insurance,’ he noted in another post.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah replied to Musk, writing, ‘Reckless incompetence.’

JERUSALEM — A leading U.S. research institute devoted to monitoring Iran’s illicit nuclear weapons program published an alarming report ahead of this weekend’s U.S.-Iran talks, declaring Tehran’s atomic weapons system has reached an extremely dangerous stage.

The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Science and International Security titled its shocking new report, ‘The Iran Threat Geiger Counter: Extreme Danger Grows.’ 

According to the study, ‘Since February 2024, the date of its last report, the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program has worsened significantly. Major negative factors include Iran’s greater nuclear weapon capabilities, its shorter time frames to build nuclear weapons, and the growing normalization of internal Iranian discussions favoring building nuclear weapons.

‘The possibility of Iran deciding to build nuclear weapons has been increased by the ongoing military conflicts in the Middle East, pitting Iran and its proxy forces against Israel and its allies, a conflict Iran is losing. The volatile security situation is now combined with the perception, if not the reality, that Iran is preparing to build nuclear weapons.’

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said, ‘We have a little time, but we don’t have much time, because we’re not going to let them have a nuclear weapon. We can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.’  He added ‘I’m not asking for much. I just — I don’t — they can’t have a nuclear weapon.’

When asked about the potential for military action if Iran does not make a deal on their nuclear weapons, Trump said, ‘Absolutely.’

‘If it requires military, we’re going to have military,’ the president told reporters at the White House. ‘Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. They’ll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us. We do what we want to do.’

Trump withdrew from the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—in 2018 because, he argued, that the accord did not stop Tehran’s drive to build a nuclear weapons device.

A state-controlled Iranian news outlet claimed on Monday that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s alleged fatwa against nuclear weapons does not outlaw their production but bans their use. Fox News Digital sought to obtain a copy of the alleged religious fatwa from Iran, but the regime has so far refused to provide the document. Iran experts have claimed that the fatwa is non-existent. 

The Institute for Science and International Security report also warned that ‘Iran still possesses military capabilities that threaten the region. It has large stockpiles of drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles that it can employ against Israel and its allies. Iran also continues to be a major player in the Ukraine war, backing Russia with vast arms transfers, including drones and missiles.’

The mouthpiece of Iran’s Khamenei—the anti-American paper Kayhan—just urged the assassination of Trump.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that ‘Threatening language from the Iranian regime or its mouthpiece against the President, or any American, is unwise.’

Iran’s regime has sought to assassinate Iranian American dissidents on American soil.

Fox News Digital reporter Alec Schemmel contributed to this report.